How to think the unity of human life?

How to think the unity of human life? History of a project between neurobiology and Philosophy.
seminar of the group Science, Reason and Faith.
José Ángel Lombo. Pamplona, November 18, 2024.

The seminar is preceded by the presentation of the book "Antropología de la acción: la vida humana como unidad dinámica", written by José Ángel Lombo and José Manuel Giménez Amaya.

José Ángel Lombo is Professor of General Ethics at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross (Rome). He is a graduate in Philosophy from the University of Navarra and holds a PhD in Philosophy from the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross. He has published seven books on anthropological themes, and dozens of articles and contributions to collective works, of which he has also been the publisher. He has done research and teaching stays in the United States, England, Mexico and Colombia, among other countries. For years, his interest has focused on the understanding of the human person from an interdisciplinary perspective involving biology and Philosophy. He has organized several congresses with this topic and orientation. He is currently researching on the relationship between habits and artificial intelligence in Education.

summary
All things, insofar as they are a certain subject of reality, are something unitary. In inert beings, unity is equivalent to the static cohesion of their parts, whereas, in living beings, it has a dynamic character, being preserved and developed through vital processes. In animals, this unity is given in the form of experience, which, in the case of human beings, is universally open to the whole of reality. In the totality of human experience, all the dimensions of the person are brought into play, from the most biological to the most spiritual, and are integrated in a unitary way in their relations with other persons and with the environment, constituting a biographical unity. Therefore, in order to approach an understanding of the human person, it is necessary to take a position on the unity of life as a whole, taking into account not only the set of factors that compose it, but also its unfolding in time. Hence, human action is shown not only as an important dimension of the person, but also as a privileged core topic for understanding its unity. From this perspective, central themes of anthropology appear, which have not always been given sufficient prominence, such as attention, report and habits, as well as the configuration of the world through action.