William Stringfellow (1928–1985) American theologian
Source: William Stringfellow: Essential Writings (2013), "Jesus the Criminal" (1969), p. 64
1960s, Freedom From The Known (1969)
Context: I think there is a difference between the human being and the individual. The individual is a local entity, living in a particular country, belonging to a particular culture, particular society, particular religion. The human being is not a local entity. He is everywhere. If the individual merely acts in a particular corner of the vast field of life, then his action is totally unrelated to the whole. So one has to bear in mind that we are talking of the whole not the part, because in the greater the lesser is, but in the lesser the greater is not. The individual is the little conditioned, miserable, frustrated entity, satisfied with his little gods and his little traditions, whereas a human being is concerned with the total welfare, the total misery and total confusion of the world.
William Stringfellow (1928–1985) American theologian
Source: William Stringfellow: Essential Writings (2013), "Jesus the Criminal" (1969), p. 64
Ray Kurzweil (1948) Author, scientist, inventor, and futurist
The Age of Spiritual Machines: When Computers Exceed Human Intelligence (1999)
Diederik Aerts (1953) Belgian theoretical physicist
Aerts, D. (1998). " The entity and modern physics: the creation-discovery view of reality. http://www.vub.ac.be/CLEA/aerts/publications/1998EntModPhys.pdf" In E. Castellani (Ed.), Interpreting Bodies: Classical and Quantum Objects in Modern Physics (pp. 223-257). Princeton: Princeton University Press.
John Blair Moore (1948–2018) American comic book writer
(on children), Invaders from Home Book 1 of 6, Piranha Press (1990).
“Confucius saw the human self as a node, not an entity.”
Huston Smith book The World's Religions
The World's Religions (1991)
Jiddu Krishnamurti (1895–1986) Indian spiritual philosopher
1960s, Freedom From The Known (1969)
Context: I think there is a difference between the human being and the individual. The individual is a local entity, living in a particular country, belonging to a particular culture, particular society, particular religion. The human being is not a local entity. He is everywhere. If the individual merely acts in a particular corner of the vast field of life, then his action is totally unrelated to the whole. So one has to bear in mind that we are talking of the whole not the part, because in the greater the lesser is, but in the lesser the greater is not. The individual is the little conditioned, miserable, frustrated entity, satisfied with his little gods and his little traditions, whereas a human being is concerned with the total welfare, the total misery and total confusion of the world.
Peter Singer (1946) Australian philosopher
Source: The Expanding Circle: Ethics, Evolution, and Moral Progress (1981), Chapter 2, The Biological Basis Of Ethics, p. 27