What is it that makes a human a human? Is it our brains? Our physical bodies? Do we perhaps have immaterial souls?
Author Jason T. Eberl tackles these enduring philosophical questions—and more—drawing on the work of 13th century philosopher and theologian, Thomas Aquinas. Beyond simply restating Aquinas’s thought, Eberl puts this theory into conversation with important contemporary accounts of human nature, including substance dualism, emergentism, animalism, constitutionalism, four-dimensionalism, and embodied mind theory. His analysis concludes that the Thomistic account offers a much more coherent framework than these alternatives.
Eberl’s The Nature of Human Persons: Metaphysics and Bioethics offers a sophisticated and engaging investigation into the composition of the human essence. The Review of Metaphysics writes, “The arguments of the text are persuasive, making The Nature of Human Persons an especially fine contribution to both the bioethics literature and to metaphysical discussions of the human person.”
The new paperback edition is available for purchase on the Notre Dame Press website.
Jason T. Eberl is professor of health care ethics and director of the Albert Gnaegi Center for Health Care Ethics at Saint Louis University. He is the author of a number of books, including Contemporary Controversies in Catholic Bioethics.