Personhood in Science Fiction pp 19-40 | Cite as
Defining Personhood in a Posthuman World
Chapter
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Abstract
The chapter begins with discussions of personhood and how it might be defined in order to apply “personhood” to the examples discussed in the book. I draw from two famous essays by Mary Midgley and Mary Anne Warren, both of which engage the question of “what is a ‘human’ or ‘person’?” in different ways. I introduce my delineation of outward versus inward personhood, and use the HBO series Westworld (2016–2018) as an excellent example of how we see these distinctions in play. Bourdieu’s concept of habitus is particularly important to the idea of outward personhood, and self-awareness or consciousness is central to inward personhood.
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© The Author(s) 2019