Who Are You, Really?
IVP Academic, 2023
By Joshua Rasmussen
WHO: Joshua Rasmussen, associate professor of philosophy at Azusa Pacific University.
HE SAYS: “Can work in philosophy contribute anything useful to our inquiry into persons?”
THE BIG IDEA: A step-by-step examination into the fundamental nature and ultimate origin of persons.
THE PROGRESSION: Part 1, “The Nature of You,” explores the “elements” of you: feelings, thoughts, perception, your power to choose, your value and your body. In each of the seven chapters, the author collects relevant observations and then uses those observations to analyze these elements and remove certain theories about them.
In Part 2, “The Origin of You,” focuses on understanding the nature of a world in which something like you can exist. The author describes several “construction” problems with constructing any being like you. He then seeks to develop a more complete theory of nature and origin of personal beings.
“Your origin is not based in impersonal mindless stuff but in the ‘stuff’ of a personal foundation.”
