Cogito Ergo Sum

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“Cogito Ergo Sum”

“Then the Lord God formed man of the dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being” (Genesis 2:7).

The Bible states the above as the moment man became a being, and from this being civilization was created. To a believer, this would answer the question of what a human is. However, as science has progressed and more abstract ideology has fallen upon the human race, this question has come to have many answers. I feel that the definition of the term human can be correct in many different ways. As a scientific definition one could say a human is a bipedal homo sapien sapien with a spine that attached to the bottom of the skull. As a Theologist a human is all the trials and tribulations that we read about in the Bible. To me both of these definitions are true, but the challenge is finding one definition that spans across all ideology. After much thought and distress I have concluded that to be human, to be a person, is merely to exist. I agree with the statement “cogito ergo sum,” or I think therefore I am. If all you can prove without doubt is that, to exist is to thin!
k, then that is our definition. In this paper I will explain and analyze Gregersen’s “seven features of human personhood,” and refute all of his points to prove my own.
Gregersen’s seven features are as follows: to be a person is to be labeled with “generic characterization,” to be a person is to exercise rationale, to be a person is to hold fast to morals, to be a person is to have an identity, to be a person is to want to be part of a whole, to be a person is to be superior, and to be a person is to transcend preceding humans. These are the seven reasons and features Gregersen lists that define being a person or a human. His first point, that to be human is to have a generic character, is based on the writings of Cicero. To this reason, I say, that defin...