Book contents
- Frontmatter
- CONTENTS
- List of Contributors
- List of Figures
- Introduction
- Part I Methodological Issues
- Part II Historical Issues
- Part III Contemporary Issues
- 8 ‘Rescuing Darwin’ in Brazil
- 9 The Creationist/Evolutionist Debate, from Science to Myth
- 10 ‘Person’ as Converging Notion for Neuroscience, Philosophy and Religion
- 11 Indeterminism and Pluralism in Nature: From Science to Philosophy and Theology
- Notes
- Index
10 - ‘Person’ as Converging Notion for Neuroscience, Philosophy and Religion
from Part III - Contemporary Issues
- Frontmatter
- CONTENTS
- List of Contributors
- List of Figures
- Introduction
- Part I Methodological Issues
- Part II Historical Issues
- Part III Contemporary Issues
- 8 ‘Rescuing Darwin’ in Brazil
- 9 The Creationist/Evolutionist Debate, from Science to Myth
- 10 ‘Person’ as Converging Notion for Neuroscience, Philosophy and Religion
- 11 Indeterminism and Pluralism in Nature: From Science to Philosophy and Theology
- Notes
- Index
Summary
My aim in this chapter is to discuss a notion (or reality) that is in itself appropriate to engage a neuroscientist, a philosopher and a theologian, or somebody concerned with religion, in a truly interdisciplinary dialogue. A brief initial defnition may be useful here; by converging notion I mean a concept which connects the issues raised by different disciplines in a logical and fruitful way. Logically, because the reality meant by that concept should be naturally relevant to all topics under discussion; and fruitfully because its consideration should be compelling in order to make good sense of the issues raised. Philosophers make use of a large array of notions that have a more or less universal range of application: being, substance, accident, act, potency, subject, object, etc. In principle, the task of first philosophy is to study the properties of being as such and, since everything is some kind of being, its conclusions should be relevant to any science. But here I am interested neither in a general theory of being nor in putting forward some notion that might in one way or other shed light on the discussion. My suggestion does not imply the claim that only the notion of person would qualify for that purpose. I do think, however, that by focusing on the notion of the person and all that specifically belongs to it or has direct relation to it, the discussion becomes highly meaningful for all three partners, probably more than taking any other perspective.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Latin American Perspectives on Science and Religion , pp. 123 - 134Publisher: Pickering & ChattoFirst published in: 2014