Person vs Human
Dec. 3rd, 2012 09:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jackI recently realised that I'd acquired, probably from science fiction, the linguistic habit of using "human" to mean someone of this species and "person" to mean any intelligent personality. For instance, I'd tend to use "human" to mean a gamete and "person" to mean ET, but not vice versa.
Of course, there are interesting exceptions. I remember a few interesting books dealing with nonhumans in a human-dominated culture dealing with the meaning of "human" as in "only human" or "inhuman".
But does anyone else do that? Obviously 99.9% of the time the difference doesn't matter.
But I think it's useful to have this sort of distinction clear in your mind in advance. For instance: humans evolved. People have rights.
Of course, even in science fiction, it's surprisingly hard to write aliens that seem genuinely non-human. Some good examples actually come from fantasy, partly because people aren't trying.
Eg. Elves can be seen as equivalent to human sociopaths: capable of normal human behaviour, but mostly without the ability to care if they harm someone else or not. And they truly have a culture humanity can only compromise with, not really ever integrate with.
Eg. Fantasy characters unapologetically killing people from enemy tribes, or enemy species -- even if they're completely human, people go through extreme contortions to justify it, rather than accept that, in that society, that's basically the only choice.
Of course, there are interesting exceptions. I remember a few interesting books dealing with nonhumans in a human-dominated culture dealing with the meaning of "human" as in "only human" or "inhuman".
But does anyone else do that? Obviously 99.9% of the time the difference doesn't matter.
But I think it's useful to have this sort of distinction clear in your mind in advance. For instance: humans evolved. People have rights.
Of course, even in science fiction, it's surprisingly hard to write aliens that seem genuinely non-human. Some good examples actually come from fantasy, partly because people aren't trying.
Eg. Elves can be seen as equivalent to human sociopaths: capable of normal human behaviour, but mostly without the ability to care if they harm someone else or not. And they truly have a culture humanity can only compromise with, not really ever integrate with.
Eg. Fantasy characters unapologetically killing people from enemy tribes, or enemy species -- even if they're completely human, people go through extreme contortions to justify it, rather than accept that, in that society, that's basically the only choice.
no subject
Date: 2012-12-04 01:09 pm (UTC)To complicate things further, not all members of a species are alike.
True, although I think people want to be wary of the idea that any humans may not deserve human rights (for a variety of good reasons).
no subject
Date: 2012-12-04 01:46 pm (UTC)There are grey areas aplenty. The abortion debate contains several of them; stem cell research, cloning, genetic modification, embryology, etc. contain more. And while conjoined twins are "human" we're less clear on how many humans there are.
People want to be wary. I'm wary of being wary, because of the danger of the worst argument in the world. This thing here is human. Therefore, it must have all the rights we afford the archetypal human. We all agree about healthy adults. We probably all agree about toenail clippings. What about embryos?
no subject
Date: 2012-12-04 10:43 pm (UTC)Good point.