The "Life" of the Mind: Persons and Survival

Camb Q Healthc Ethics. 2024 May 8:1-26. doi: 10.1017/S0963180124000082. Online ahead of print.

Abstract

A life of the mind can be lived only by creatures who know that they have minds. We call these creatures "persons," and currently, all such persons THAT we know OF are "alive" in the biological sense. But are there, or could there be, either in the future or elsewhere in the universe, creatures with "a life of the mind" that are not "alive" in the sense that we humans usually understand this term today?

Keywords: death; grief; injustice; mind; value of life.