ABSTRACT

What do I mean by distinguishing the having of a life from merely living? As a characteristic of the living, life is ubiquitous. We find it exemplified in all things that are capable of sustaining themselves in existence, of nourishing themselves, of reproducing themselves. But in the sense that I intend it here, the having of a life is something much more specific-rather than mere continued, self-sustaining existence, the having of a life involves the grasping of one’s life as indeed one’s own, as something that one lives, as something for which, to a greater or lesser degree, one takes responsibility. In this sense my cat asleep on the sofa, while undoubtedly alive (as any attempt to displace her will soon make clear), cannot be said to have a life. This does not mean that she lacks ‘interests’ or desires or has no strong attachments to places and people (for she certainly has all of these) or indeed that she has no ‘personality’, but that the having of a life is more than this, for it involves the ability to grasp one’s life as, in some sense, one’s own. And this is something of which, notwithstanding her many other accomplishments, my cat is quite incapable.