Problem osoby w świetle neuronauk. Czy osoba to jedynie użyteczna metafora?

Abstract

Starting from John Paul II’s critique of Cartesianism, this article shows the influence of the latter on the emergence of empirical-positivist (Gerhard Roth) and eliminational (Daniel C. Dennett) theories of the person that consider man merely a useful metaphor. The philosopher Peter F. Strawson and the neurologist Roger W. Sperry, who came up with the metaphysical and emergentist theories of the person, respectively, support the idea that the person is not merely illusory and metaphorical. An exclusively metaphorical understanding of the person also contradicts current research on neuroplasticity, as both studies on people with obsessive-compulsive disorder and the treatment of patients after the stroke demonstrate.