Body & Soul - Human Nature and the Crisis in Ethics
Moreland (J.P.) & Rae (Scott)
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Summary from Inter Varsity Press

  1. While most people throughout history have believed that we are both physical and spiritual beings, the rise of science has called the existence of the soul into question. Many argue that neurophysiology demonstrates the radical dependence, indeed, identity, between mind and brain. Advances in genetics and in mapping human DNA, some say, show there is no need for the hypothesis of body-soul dualism. Even many Christian intellectuals have come to view the soul as a false Greek concept that is outdated and unbiblical.
  2. Concurrent with the demise of dualism has been the rise of advanced medical technologies that have brought to the fore difficult issues at both edges of life. Central to questions about abortion1, fetal research, reproductive technologies, cloning and euthanasia is our understanding of the nature of human personhood, the reality of life after death2, and the value of ethical or religious knowledge as compared to scientific knowledge.
  3. In this careful treatment, J. P. Moreland and Scott B. Rae argue that the rise of these problems alongside the demise of Christian dualism is no coincidence. They therefore employ a theological realism to meet these pressing issues, and to present a reasonable and biblical depiction of human nature as it impinges on critical ethical concerns.
  4. This vigorous philosophical and ethical defense of human nature as body and soul, regardless of whether one agrees or disagrees, will be for all a touchstone for debate and discussion for years to come.
  5. Highlights:
    • "Personhood is constituted by a set of ultimate capacities of thought, belief, sensation, emotion, volition, desire, intentionality and so forth. ...None of these ultimate capacities is physical, and therefore neither is personhood itself" — (p.25)
    • "According to Thomistic dualism the soul is an individuated essence that makes the body a human body and that diffuses, informs, animates, develops, unifies and grounds the biological functions of its body. The various chemical processes and parts (e.g., DNA) involved in morphogenesis are tools, means or instrumental causes employed by the soul as it teleologically unfolds its capacities toward the formation of a mature human body that functions as it ought to function by nature... In different senses, the body is in the soul and the soul is in the body." (p.202)

Table of Contents
    Introduction
    Part One: Metaphysical Reflections on Human Personhood
  1. Establishing a Framework for Approaching Human Personhood
  2. Human Persons as Substances or Property-Things
  3. Human Persons in Naturalist & Complementarian Perspectives
  4. Substance Dualism & the Human Person: Free Agency
  5. Substance Dualism & the Human Person: Personal Identity
  6. Substance Dualism & the Body: Heredity, DNA & the Soul
    Part Two: Ethical Reflections on Human Personhood
  7. The Moral & Metaphysical Status of the Unborn: Abortion3 & Fetal Research
  8. Reproductive Technologies in Substance-Dualist Perspective
  9. Genetic Technologies & Human Cloning
  10. Euthanasia, Physician-Assisted Suicide & Care of Persons at the End of Life
    Conclusion
Book Comment

Inter-Varsity Press, Downers Grove, 2000


"Moreland (J.P.) & Rae (Scott) - Body & Soul: Introduction"

Source: Moreland & Rae - Body & Soul - Human Nature and the Crisis in Ethics

Paper Comment

For a write-up, Click here for Note

Write-up1 (as at 12/02/2009 21:30:14): Moreland & Rae - Body & Soul: Introduction

This write-up is a review of "Moreland (J.P.) & Rae (Scott) - Body & Soul: Introduction". These notes are not a complete analysis, but simply reflect interesting points for my thesis.

Approval of Plantinga’s claim (presumably "Plantinga (Alvin) - Advice to Christian Philosophers" or maybe "Plantinga (Alvin) - Is Belief in God Properly Basic?") about the correctness of bringing Christian presuppositions to philosophy. I disagree with this. Philosophy is properly basic (though where it deals in empirical matters it is answerable to the sciences).

Scientism has disastrous consequences for Christianity:
  1. No universal body of ethical or religious knowledge in Western universities.
  2. Marginalisation of the Christian worldview.
  3. Revision of theology in the light of science.
  4. Epistemic preference given to the hard sciences over biblical, theological and philosophical claims.
Note: I’d have thought that if these are woes, their woefulness needs to be argued for (presumably the authors think this unnecessary, either following Plantinga or noting that an IVP book will be preaching to the converted).

Husserl on how Germany was seduced into Nazism, despite being the most highly-educated nation in Europe: attributed to the identification of knowledge with mathematical physics and the hard sciences generally.

Note: I’d have thought that those seduced by Nazism (as distinct from intimidated by Nazis) weren’t the most educated. However, there does seem to have been a large student following. I’d put this down to Romanticism rather than hard science. Also, who has ever claimed that mathematical physics and the hard sciences are the only source of knowledge (only that they are the most basic).

Husserl thought that human questions about values, the meaning of life, God and politics had lost objectivity. The privatisation of ethical and theological issues resulted in free reign for dictators with no moral or theological restraint.

Note: surely the Nazis made lots of supposedly factual claims (eg. on race2 or history) that were plain false. They also fatally underestimated “Jewish physics”.

Husserl countered this moral problem by proposing “a form of dualism regarding consciousness and the self” (whatever that was) that countered the cognitive authority of naturalism.

Note: surely metaphysics should not be ruled by ethics. Better to come up with a system of naturalised ethics that’s consistent with scientific knowledge.

Giving up an understanding of human beings as spiritual substances will devitalise the spiritual lives of Christians. Complaints raised about giving primacy to matter, and the suggestion that nothing has really been found out that renders a spiritual understanding foolish.

Note: but isn’t it a factual question whether there is such a thing as spirit? We can’t just say that science is only interested in matter and so will overlook spirit. Science is interested in what there is, with the guiding principle that things should be explained materialistically3 if possible.

Claim that we must rehabilitate Jesus as intellectually competent and having a view that human persons have substantial, immaterial souls.

Note: well, did he have this view? Even if he did, is this relevant (given theories of kenosis – does he need to be scientifically competent?).

… To be continued4 …



In-Page Footnotes ("Moreland (J.P.) & Rae (Scott) - Body & Soul: Introduction")

Footnote 1:
  • This is the write-up as it was when this Abstract was last output, with text as at the timestamp indicated (12/02/2009 21:30:14).
  • Link to Latest Write-Up Note.


"Moreland (J.P.) & Rae (Scott) - Establishing a Framework For Approaching Human Personhood"

Source: Moreland & Rae - Body & Soul - Human Nature and the Crisis in Ethics, Chapter 1

Paper Comment

For a write-up, Click here for Note

Write-up1 (as at 12/02/2009 21:30:14): Moreland & Rae - Body & Soul: Establishing a Framework For Approaching Human Personhood

This write-up is a review of "Moreland (J.P.) & Rae (Scott) - Establishing a Framework For Approaching Human Personhood".

… To be supplied2 …



In-Page Footnotes ("Moreland (J.P.) & Rae (Scott) - Establishing a Framework For Approaching Human Personhood")

Footnote 1:
  • This is the write-up as it was when this Abstract was last output, with text as at the timestamp indicated (12/02/2009 21:30:14).
  • Link to Latest Write-Up Note.


"Moreland (J.P.) & Rae (Scott) - Human Persons as Substances or Property-Things"

Source: Moreland & Rae - Body & Soul - Human Nature and the Crisis in Ethics, Chapter 2

Paper Comment

For a write-up, Click here for Note

Write-up1 (as at 12/02/2009 21:30:14): Moreland & Rae - Body & Soul: Human Persons as Substances or Property-Things

This write-up is a review of "Moreland (J.P.) & Rae (Scott) - Human Persons as Substances or Property-Things".

… To be supplied2 …



In-Page Footnotes ("Moreland (J.P.) & Rae (Scott) - Human Persons as Substances or Property-Things")

Footnote 1:
  • This is the write-up as it was when this Abstract was last output, with text as at the timestamp indicated (12/02/2009 21:30:14).
  • Link to Latest Write-Up Note.


"Moreland (J.P.) & Rae (Scott) - Human Persons in Naturalistic & Complementarian Perspectives"

Source: Moreland & Rae - Body & Soul - Human Nature and the Crisis in Ethics, Chapter 3


Authors’ Introduction
  1. During the last decade there has been a growing body of literature about the ethics of abortion, infanticide, euthanasia and suicide. In spite of the claims of philosophers like John Rawls and Kai Nielsen, who assert that ethics can and ought to be done without metaphysics, the central issues emerging in this body of literature involve, crucially and essentially, a treatment of metaphysical themes — the nature of being human, personhood and personal identity.
  2. Ultimately, one’s views on these matters will merely elaborate the more basic metaphysical question, Are human persons substances or property-things? Unfortunately, among ethicists who treat end-of-life issues there is a widespread trend of avoiding serious metaphysical analysis in conjunction with these issues. Often, what follows are not conclusions purged of metaphysics but rather conclusions guided by an inadequate metaphysical perspective implicit (or supposedly implicit) in natural science.
  3. The thesis of this chapter is that strict philosophical naturalists and Christian complementarians are united by the inner logic of their views in depicting human persons as property-things and that this depiction has serious, troublesome implications for the ethical issues mentioned in the last half of this book. To justify this thesis we will do three things:
    1. Describe strict philosophical naturalism and the view of human persons implied by it
    2. Describe Christian complementarianism and the view of human persons implied by it
    3. Present a brief description of a representative example of a Christian complementarian view of human persons developed explicitly in light of ethical issues


"Moreland (J.P.) & Rae (Scott) - Substance Dualism & the Human Person: Free Agency"

Source: Moreland & Rae - Body & Soul - Human Nature and the Crisis in Ethics, Chapter 4


"Moreland (J.P.) & Rae (Scott) - Substance Dualism & the Human Person: Personal Identity"

Source: Moreland & Rae - Body & Soul - Human Nature and the Crisis in Ethics, Chapter 5


"Moreland (J.P.) & Rae (Scott) - Substance Dualism & the Body: Heredity, DNA & the Soul"

Source: Moreland & Rae - Body & Soul - Human Nature and the Crisis in Ethics, Chapter 6


"Moreland (J.P.) & Rae (Scott) - The Moral & Metaphysical Status of the Unborn: Abortion and Fetal Research"

Source: Moreland & Rae - Body & Soul - Human Nature and the Crisis in Ethics, Chapter 7


"Moreland (J.P.) & Rae (Scott) - Reproductive Technologies in Substance-Dualist Perspective"

Source: Moreland & Rae - Body & Soul - Human Nature and the Crisis in Ethics, Chapter 8


"Moreland (J.P.) & Rae (Scott) - Genetic Technologies & Human Cloning"

Source: Moreland & Rae - Body & Soul - Human Nature and the Crisis in Ethics, Chapter 9


"Moreland (J.P.) & Rae (Scott) - Euthanasia, Physician-Assisted Suicide & Care of Persons at the End of Life"

Source: Moreland & Rae - Body & Soul - Human Nature and the Crisis in Ethics, Chapter 10


"Moreland (J.P.) & Rae (Scott) - Body & Soul: Conclusion"

Source: Moreland & Rae - Body & Soul - Human Nature and the Crisis in Ethics


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