# “Virus” -or- “Person with a Purpose”?
**URL:** https://www.ilovephilosophy.com/t/virus-or-person-with-a-purpose/86132
**Category:** Society, Government, and Economics
**Created:** [August 27, 2026, 10:26am UTC](https://www.ilovephilosophy.com/t/virus-or-person-with-a-purpose/86132 "2026-08-27T10:26:02Z")
**Posts on this page:** 17
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Ichthus77](https://www.ilovephilosophy.com/u/Ichthus77)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2026, 10:26am UTC](https://www.ilovephilosophy.com/t/virus-or-person-with-a-purpose/86132/1 "2026-08-27T10:26:02Z")
What is the difference between a person and a virus?
The purpose of their modification being intentional versus unintentional?
How do you tell the difference between an intentional (personal) purpose and an unintentional (impersonal) purpose?
What sort of purpose/intention is the real difference between viruses and persons?
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### Author:  [@MrAuthoritarian](https://www.ilovephilosophy.com/u/MrAuthoritarian)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2026, 11:24am UTC](https://www.ilovephilosophy.com/t/virus-or-person-with-a-purpose/86132/2 "2026-08-27T11:24:48Z")
Sounds pretty nihilistic.
🤡
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### Author:  [@Ichthus77](https://www.ilovephilosophy.com/u/Ichthus77)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2026, 11:40am UTC](https://www.ilovephilosophy.com/t/virus-or-person-with-a-purpose/86132/3 "2026-08-27T11:40:33Z")
Go say stupid random \*\*\*\* to your wife.
She signed up for that — I did not.
On this website, when you’re talking to me, you need to make sense.
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### Author:  [@MrAuthoritarian](https://www.ilovephilosophy.com/u/MrAuthoritarian)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2026, 11:58am UTC](https://www.ilovephilosophy.com/t/virus-or-person-with-a-purpose/86132/4 "2026-08-27T11:58:57Z")
@Ichthus77
Aren’t you suppose to be religious?
Sinful displays of behavior here, you should go repent.
🤡
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### Author:  [@Ichthus77](https://www.ilovephilosophy.com/u/Ichthus77)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2026, 12:37pm UTC](https://www.ilovephilosophy.com/t/virus-or-person-with-a-purpose/86132/5 "2026-08-27T12:37:16Z")
Fuggetaboutit.
Bearing this cross because 2000+ years of your knuckleheaded forebears messed it up:
(Ignore everything that’s wrong about it.)
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### Author:  [@MrAuthoritarian](https://www.ilovephilosophy.com/u/MrAuthoritarian)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2026, 1:26pm UTC](https://www.ilovephilosophy.com/t/virus-or-person-with-a-purpose/86132/6 "2026-08-27T13:26:39Z")
@Ichthus77
That looks very serious spread about on the bed. Or, is that a couch?
🤡
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### Author:  [@Ichthus77](https://www.ilovephilosophy.com/u/Ichthus77)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2026, 1:45pm UTC](https://www.ilovephilosophy.com/t/virus-or-person-with-a-purpose/86132/7 "2026-08-27T13:45:25Z")
Your current profile picture:
because right before that:
> [@Is Psychotherapy Enough for Personal Growth?](https://www.ilovephilosophy.com/t/is-psychotherapy-enough-for-personal-growth/83602/14):
>
> My Sensei made that for me. Imagine in the background: “calm like a bomb“ by rage against the machine. That bomb is so Zen… and that Zen is so bomb. #ArtTherapy
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### Author:  [@Stopgap](https://www.ilovephilosophy.com/u/Stopgap)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2026, 4:16pm UTC](https://www.ilovephilosophy.com/t/virus-or-person-with-a-purpose/86132/8 "2026-08-27T16:16:03Z")
The key difference is that a virus can behave as if it has a purpose without actually intending anything. It reproduces because of its biology, but it doesn’t seem to have an awareness of what it’s doing. A person can actually have intentions, think about goals, and choose between them. So it’s not so much about purposeful behavior, but whether there’s a conscious subject behind the purpose.
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### Author:  [@greenfuse](https://www.ilovephilosophy.com/u/greenfuse)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2026, 4:26pm UTC](https://www.ilovephilosophy.com/t/virus-or-person-with-a-purpose/86132/9 "2026-08-27T16:26:13Z")
> [@Ichthus77](#):
>
> What sort of purpose/intention is the real difference between viruses and persons?
Intentions found in the latter but not the former: finding love, making friends, playing games, creating art, deepening understanding, hiding farts, making jokes, challenging one’s assumptions, cooking, getting better sleep, taking revenge…
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### Author:  [@Ichthus77](https://www.ilovephilosophy.com/u/Ichthus77)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2026, 4:28pm UTC](https://www.ilovephilosophy.com/t/virus-or-person-with-a-purpose/86132/10 "2026-08-27T16:28:55Z")
> [@greenfuse](#):
>
> hiding farts?
We _do_ know that a virus would never do that. …but it would never _not_ do it, either.
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### Author:  [@Destiny](https://www.ilovephilosophy.com/u/Destiny)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2026, 4:30pm UTC](https://www.ilovephilosophy.com/t/virus-or-person-with-a-purpose/86132/11 "2026-08-27T16:30:42Z")
Yeah, creation beyond oneself is probably what most clearly separates the human from the virus.
Obviously humanity is a virus upon the planet in many ways and all that is largely unintentional - just Capital. Capital makes humanity into its blind, virus-like tools. I don’t mean money, or trade or economy or even greed, all that can be pretty generative and creative.
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### Author:  [@greenfuse](https://www.ilovephilosophy.com/u/greenfuse)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2026, 5:00pm UTC](https://www.ilovephilosophy.com/t/virus-or-person-with-a-purpose/86132/12 "2026-08-27T17:00:14Z")
> [@Ichthus77](#):
>
> We _do_ know that a virus would never do that. …but it would never _not_ do it, either.
I’m glad you found the most important attribute, in my list, that separates us from viruses. I personally think they are intentionally not holding back farts. They can transfer genes without reproduction. Given their speed of making next generation of viruses and their long history on earth, if they wanted GIs and farts, they would have organized it, from the bottom up, puns intended.
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### Author:  [@AngelsSoul](https://www.ilovephilosophy.com/u/AngelsSoul)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2026, 6:45pm UTC](https://www.ilovephilosophy.com/t/virus-or-person-with-a-purpose/86132/13 "2026-08-27T18:45:35Z")
Different levels of development of living matter with different adaptive capabilities - a virus will die out in unfavorable conditions, but a person can adapt and survive.
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### Author:  [@Ichthus77](https://www.ilovephilosophy.com/u/Ichthus77)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2026, 11:41pm UTC](https://www.ilovephilosophy.com/t/virus-or-person-with-a-purpose/86132/14 "2026-08-27T23:41:26Z")
> [@greenfuse](#):
>
> found the most important attribute, in my list, that separates us from viruses
you may have a point there
> [@greenfuse](#):
>
> they would have organized it
“If someone in public happens to pass gas loudly, people are so startled, it is as if it were the voice of a spirit. So intoxicated are we when we are a public.”
Kierkegaard
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### Author:  [@greenfuse](https://www.ilovephilosophy.com/u/greenfuse)
#### Post date: [August 28, 2026, 3:43am UTC](https://www.ilovephilosophy.com/t/virus-or-person-with-a-purpose/86132/15 "2026-08-28T03:43:07Z")
> [@Ichthus77](#):
>
> “If someone in public happens to pass gas loudly, people are so startled, it is as if it were the voice of a spirit. So intoxicated are we when we are a public.”
>
> Kierkegaard
👍 Not only did you find an excellent quote by a Christian no less, he’s really going after something rather deep about humans - our strange ego ideals - and yet using farts. Put my use of farts to shame.
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### Author:  [@Ichthus77](https://www.ilovephilosophy.com/u/Ichthus77)
#### Post date: [August 28, 2026, 6:36am UTC](https://www.ilovephilosophy.com/t/virus-or-person-with-a-purpose/86132/16 "2026-08-28T06:36:24Z")
Three people talking about farts… almost like they organized it. …organically.
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### Author:  [@anew1](https://www.ilovephilosophy.com/u/anew1)
#### Post date: [August 29, 2026, 8:10am UTC](https://www.ilovephilosophy.com/t/virus-or-person-with-a-purpose/86132/17 "2026-08-29T08:10:11Z")
> [@Ichthus77](#):
>
> What is the difference between a person and a virus?
A ‘person’ is the invisible thoughts and emotions within a human body.
A ‘virus’ is a visible infectious particle that cannot reproduce on its own and must invade a living cell to make copies of itself.
So, although both live within human bodies one is invisible while the other is visible to the human eyes.
If a human body has done something that was intended, (usually referred to as a behavior), then this was an intentional (personal) purpose, while if a human body has reacted, and not done something that was intended, then this was an unintentional (impersonal) reaction.
If you cannot directly tell a reaction from a mis/behavior, and thus tell what was done intentionally from unintentionally, then you could always just ask the other for clarification.
> [@Ichthus77](#):
>
> What sort of purpose/intention is the real difference between viruses and persons?
The fact that people are born innately curious, wanting to learn, and want to love and care for others is one difference between viruses and persons. Unless, of course, viruses have this innate ability or nature also.