Are we ready for non human personhood? The human, the animal and the robot

Abstract

The essay investigates the premises of the broadening of the notion of “person” beyond the human species, in two converging directions: (a) the approach of some animals to the “person zone” through relevant behaviors and cognitive capacities; (b) the emergence of artificial entities capable of cognitive performances which can rival those of humans. The argument is built around three landmarks: (1) the world/Umwelt as its own mode of emergence; (2) “world” as a dynamic which establishes meanings and relations; (3) the distance (historical and ontological) between the meanings which animals and humans have in the world. On this basis, I discuss the extent to which a legal fiction of the “as if” type (in the spirit of the “intentional stance”) can support the recognition of gradual forms of non-human personhood. I conclude that the responsible expansion of the framework of the person is possible without trivializing essential differences and without dissolving humanism, although it modifies its traditional hierarchies.