Nature and the Diachronic Identity of Human Persons

The animalist viewpoint

Abstract

What are we human persons? What do we need to persist over time? These are fundamental questions of the long standing debate on personal identity also involving contemporary philosophers belonging to the so-called Analytic Philosophy. One of the dominant positions among those taking part in current debate states that each of us is a human animal and that the  conditions of our persistence are the same as those of animals. In addition to the content of animalism, the paper explores some of the arguments for, and the objections to that matter, concluding with some reflections on the importance of dialogue among the different philosophical traditions in order to study in depth the understanding of our metaphysical distinguishing features.