Abstract

Chapter 9 discusses some of the contributions to reality made by the first-person perspective. The main contribution is the existence of persons with their unique abilities. In addition, there are various kinds of agency: beings with only rudimentary first-person perspectives are capable of minimal agency, and beings with robust first-person perspectives are capable of rational and moral agency. Production of artifacts and artworks requires agency and hence requires first-person perspectives. The conditions for moral responsibility require a robust first-person perspective. (That’s why we do not hold animals, with only rudimentary first-person perspectives, morally responsible.) In surveying such a miscellany of ways that the first-person perspective contributes to reality, I hope to expose its significance to the way things are.