Two Friends Discuss The Nature Of Mind, Body, And Personal Identity
Two Bodies sat with their friend, Elisabeth. Turning to Elisabeth, they said, in unison, “This may sound strange, but I, we (as you understand me), share one mind. I have two bodies, but I am just one person. I have eight limbs and four eyes which experience different things, but to me, it is all one.”
Elisabeth paused. “But how can this be? To say you’re one person would be to say a person can exist in two places at once.”
“Yes, but to say I am two people would make no sense to me. Whilst.” said one Body.
“My.” said the other Body.
“Bodies.”
“Can.”
“Act.”
“Independently of one another, it feels no different from when I had one body, and simply wriggled my fingers independently of one another. I should know, for I was not always like this,” finished the first Body.
Elisabeth looked quite astonished. She had always been quite proud of having two friends and was saddened to now potentially only have one. “This is impossible! The mind needs a brain to exist. Your bodies would need to be attached to one another and share one brain for you to claim you had two bodies and one mind. Although, if they were attached, you should only claim to have one body.”
“Well perhaps Descartes can help explain my situation to you,” said one Body “Minds, claimed Descartes, are the things that think, emote and experience sensations such as taste, touch and smell; bodies, on the other hand, are the things that wander around and get wet in the rain. These activities of thinking and getting wet in the rain are so different that, to do them, minds and bodies must be made of different substances. Bodies are made of extended substances.”
“That means they take up space,” chimed in the other Body, “whereas minds take up no space!”
“The mind isn’t really anywhere,” chuckled the Bodies in unison. “When you think of it like that, you couldn’t say that one person is in two places at once. You could only say that two bodies are in two places at once, but one mind is nowhere in particular and therefore (assuming personal identity requires both a mind and a body)...”
“Excuse me,” said a hook-nosed old man that happened to be walking past. “My name’s John, I couldn’t help but overhear your conversation. Don’t you think that as well as mind and body you ought to include memories in your account of personal identity?”
“I don’t see what difference it would make,” one Body said to the other.
“No, I remember all of my memories of this Body’s actions just as do this Body’s.” They motioned to themselves and themselves sat next to them. Both bodies frowned at John.
“I’m sure there are no logical errors to be had here, please continue!” said John, walking away, his silver locks glinting in the sun.
“... Assuming personal identity to be mind, body (and memories) you would have a two halves of a person in two places. Which makes complete sense.”
“Oh,” said Elisabeth, quite distraught, as she began to realize she had only one friend after all. She thought for a moment and then it struck her. “If your mind doesn’t take up any space, how can it cause something, which does take up space, to move?”
“Well...” considered one Body.
“I’m not quite sure myself,” the Bodies said together. “Maybe it’s not so much that the mind is a separate substance, but that it’s a property inherent in all physical matter, a sort of ‘panpsychism.’ Then it could be either that when matter is arranged in some highly complex way it gives rise to consciousness, perhaps my matter is arranged so that these two bodies both share one part in the consciousness… Or else, it could be that there is a universal consciousness and all matter, animate or inanimate, share some part of it. We all three of us...”
“Could be one person!” triumphantly cried the Bodies and Elisabeth, who stopped herself in alarm, realizing that if all three of them (as well her pet rock) were to be one person, she would have no friends but herself and, if that was the case, could she really claim to have friends at all?
“I refuse to believe this is possible!” Elisabeth shouted petulantly. “I’ll see you both tomorrow. Goodbye, René and Renée!”
“Goodbye.” the Bodies said in unison, turning towards one another and staring into their eyes, staring into their eyes, staring into their eyes…
POST A COMMENT
See Also
Want to read more news? Click here for a random article.