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KMID : 1025620130160010041
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Korean Journal of Medical Ethics
2013 Volume.16 No. 1 p.41 ~ p.58
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Philosophical Inquiry on Ontological Characters of Human Body Parts
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Cho Sun-Woo
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Abstract
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It is uncontroversial that human body parts, including human material, are physical beings. However, they seem to be treated not just as physical objects but as those of a special kind. There seems to be some ontological characters of human body parts that explain why we tend to feel uncomfortable or unpleasant when those parts are treated in certain ways that will be introduced in this paper. This paper explores the ontological characters of human body parts by means of comparison with other physical beings whose ontological characters cannot be explained by reductive materialism-that is, human beings and works of art. For this goal, I examine Dworkin’s discussion of the sanctity of human life-based on the concept of ‘creative investment’- and Margolis’ analysis of the ontology of artworks-based on the concept of ‘cultural emergence’. The insight that each of these can offer as well as the applicability of these to human body parts will be discussed.
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KEYWORD
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human body parts, human material, ontological characters, creative investment, cultural emergence
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