Monday, September 10, 2012
The book asks many interesting questions but there is one in particular that caught my attention and really made me think. It went something like this: if person A had person B's brain, would he be person A or B? There is no way of knowing and I do not know anywhere near enough information to even take a guess but it made me wonder what makes me who I am. I came to the conclusion that it was not my bosy because if I lose my arm, I am still me. If I lose the entire lower half of my body then I would still be me. Even if I lost everything neck down I would still see me as me. You can take off more and more but when I think about it I can almost see a point somewhere inside my head that captures who I am. But if it not my body than what is it? Is it just my consciousness? Am I only me because I consciously or subconsciously tell myself I am? If I could somehow tell myself that I was someone else, Would I be him? So many questions and so answers but answering the books questions may lead to answering a few of mine.
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I agree with you Bradley; this concept is baffling. Would you be the same person if your brain were placed in someone else's body? Just to bring some insight I will take a gander as to what some of the ancestors of psychology would think. For Dualists Socrates, Plato, and Descartes, i believe they would say that since your mind is separate from your body, you would still be the same person in another body. This would be because your mind could function the same on its own or in a different body. However, for monists Aristotle and John Locke, i believe they would say that since your mind and body are together, you would be a totally different person if your mind were outside your body and in someone else's body. Hopefully my explanation can give a little bit of clarity to your predicament, Bradley.
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