Is a zombie still a Person

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Yes, zombies are still people - they’ve just had a very bad experience in Haiti.

But the Haitians I know all say that every zombie they’ve known got what he deserved.
 
neophyte said:
Yes, zombies are still people - they’ve just had a very bad experience in Haiti.

But the Haitians I know all say that every zombie they’ve known got what he deserved.
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Those people have been the recipients of very rough rural “folk justice”: dosed with blowfish poison, buried alive, survived suffocation, then enslaved after they were dug back up. Being raised in that cultural milleu, they “accept” their punishment, of course brain damage from the lack of oxygen plays a part too. And per the Voudoun reasoning, even if actually die from the poison or the burial, they are still “zombies”, their soul entraped in the bokar’s bottle.
 
Lion_of_Narnia said:
Those people have been the recipients of very rough rural “folk justice”: dosed with blowfish poison, buried alive, survived suffocation, then enslaved after they were dug back up. Being raised in that cultural milleu, they “accept” their punishment, of course brain damage from the lack of oxygen plays a part too. And per the Voudoun reasoning, even if actually die from the poison or the burial, they are still “zombies”, their soul entraped in the bokar’s bottle.
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I think that’s the puffer fish.

B
 
Lion_of_Narnia said:
Those people have been the recipients of very rough rural “folk justice”: dosed with blowfish poison, buried alive, survived suffocation, then enslaved after they were dug back up. Being raised in that cultural milleu, they “accept” their punishment, of course brain damage from the lack of oxygen plays a part too. And per the Voudoun reasoning, even if actually die from the poison or the burial, they are still “zombies”, their soul entraped in the bokar’s bottle.
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As I said, a very bad experience.
 
Lion_of_Narnia said:
Those people have been the recipients of very rough rural “folk justice”: dosed with blowfish poison, buried alive, survived suffocation, then enslaved after they were dug back up. Being raised in that cultural milleu, they “accept” their punishment, of course brain damage from the lack of oxygen plays a part too. And per the Voudoun reasoning, even if actually die from the poison or the burial, they are still “zombies”, their soul entraped in the bokar’s bottle.
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Can we book a cruise to there, and is Zombie hunting on the menu?
 
Regina_Love said:
Can we book a cruise to there, and is Zombie hunting on the menu?
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NO!–Haitian zombies are as much human as anyone who has suffered traumatic brain injury–they are not “undead” and they are not highly-theoretical Romero “walking dead”
 
  1. Perhaps people should be embalmed with cranberry juice – i hear it putrifies the body’s minerals and granular stones, thereby making zombie-ism an unlikely event.
  2. Don’t be scared of them (i.e. petrified), because they are already dead. You technically can’t kill a dead person. Better to direct their activities. Get them to start digging their own graves.
 
Michael19682 said:
  1. Perhaps people should be embalmed with cranberry juice – i hear it putrifies the body’s minerals and granular stones, thereby making zombie-ism an unlikely event.
  2. Don’t be scared of them (i.e. petrified), because they are already dead. You technically can’t kill a dead person. Better to direct their activities. Get them to start digging their own graves.
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Unless they’re the real Haitian zombies; in that case get them medical attention.
 
I actually got to see zombies but it was at Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios it was pretty fun:D. It had a Walking Dead haunted House and random people walking around scaring people throughout the park.
 
ReapReason said:
In a zombie apocalypse, you must defend yourself. But are we to think of our selves as killing people? If it can be avoided, should we not kill a zombie because they are people?

I say they are no-longer people.
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Like you, I don’t think of zombies as people because they are just re-animated corpses and have no soul (that is, that binding form that imparts life). We can see this in the way they (as imagined, anyway) exhibit no personality traits, free choices or emotions. I guess you could say the same of some politicians, but I don’t think they’re zombies… well, I hope not!
 
Well, it depends on how you define zombie.

In 28 Days Later, the zombies were actually people infected with a very potent and highly-transmitted disease. In Dawn of the Dead, it was people who died and did not stay dead.

Since, in the first case, the soul could not have left the body since the body was not dead, then they are still people. In the latter case, the soul could have left the body and some other, likely demonic, force revived it; thus these zombies are not people.
 
ReapReason said:
In a zombie apocalypse, you must defend yourself. But are we to think of our selves as killing people? If it can be avoided, should we not kill a zombie because they are people?

I say they are no-longer people.
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Interesting question. 🙂

Why do I suspect there are some philosophical traps in this? :hmmm:
 
Alberti_Devoveo said:
Well, it depends on how you define zombie.

In 28 Days Later, the zombies were actually people infected with a very potent and highly-transmitted disease. In Dawn of the Dead, it was people who died and did not stay dead.

Since, in the first case, the soul could not have left the body since the body was not dead, then they are still people. In the latter case, the soul could have left the body and some other, likely demonic, force revived it; thus these zombies are not people.
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Fair point, Alberti.

I remember 28 Days Later. I’m not sure if I’d call them zombies, though, since they were intelligent (to a degree) and capable of self-directed action (to a degree). It was more like a devolved human condition, rather than mindlessness as seems to be the case with your classical zombie. Therefore, they might very well have a soul.

Jonathan
 
Great discussion! The neat thing about good science fiction is it gives us a non-threatening way to think about serious ethical issues. Zombies films deal with the psychology of war, where soldiers find it easier to kill the enemy by thinking of them as less than human. They also deal with the ethics of euthanasia, as the living in these films often have to face the choice of killing a loved one who has become a zombie. There are other issues as well, such as deciding whether to leave a fallen comrade behind to be devoured so that one might escape a zombie horde, or staying at his side and facing death. Is it brave, or foolish to die with him?
 
this one? are you sure?

“Data! Data! Data!” he cried impatiently. “I can’t make bricks without clay.”
 
pig said:
this one? are you sure?

“Data! Data! Data!” he cried impatiently. “I can’t make bricks without clay.”
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:rotfl:
I had no idea Sherlock new Data! I guess he was filling in for Watson that day.
The quote I was referring to was when Sherlock said, “It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.” which he said many times with many slight variants.
 
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