- This pseudo-Paper is intended as the mechanism to record time spent on the Note 'Disembodied Existence1' during my Thesis research, as from 2011.
- For the actual time recorded, click on "Paper Statistics" above.
Write-up2 (as at 06/07/2023 00:43:12): Disembodied Existence
Plug Note3
- Thesis Text:
- As an Animalist4, I don’t hold out much hope for disembodied existence for such beings as ourselves5.
- It is true that most people, most of the time, seem to have thought it possible – or even certain. Presumably it is closely related to the view that we are – or at least have – immortal6 souls7 that survive the death8 of our bodies9. Maybe there are alternative “possibilities” to explain the origins of the belief. But there are worries whether disembodied existence is even coherent for concrete particulars.
- Note that “disembodied” is sometimes used for “disembodied brains”. Since the brain10 is part of the body11, I cover such possibilities under Brains In Vats12.
- There is some overlap between this topic and at least one topic in Transhumanism13. The idea behind Uploading14 seems to be that we are “patterns in information15 space” (Andy Clark) and these “patterns” could – in principle – be uploaded16 to a computer17. The entities resulting from such uploads would appear to be disembodied, at least if their experience (assuming that they are conscious18) is of having simulated bodies19 they don’t really have, as in The Matrix. But, all this illusion aside, are these minds20 actually disembodied, or are their “bodies21” (parts of) the computer22 that “runs” them?
Further Remarks:
- I’m not sure this is worth spending much time on, other than as a sub-plot of the investigation that we might be souls23 in Chapter_0224 (“What Are We25?”). However …
References
- Relevant Works cited above: No items to list.
- For a Page of Links26 to this Note27, Click here.
- Works on this topic that I’ve actually read28, include the following:-
- Aeon:
- "Aeon - Video - The undying hydra", 2021, External Link
- General:
- "Hospers (John) - Is the Notion of Disembodied Existence Intelligible?", 1997
- "Lowe (E.J.) - Review of Peter Unger's - 'All the Power in the World'", 2008, Annotations, Internal PDF Link
- "Olson (Eric) - What Are We? Souls", 2007, Write-Up Note29, Internal PDF Link
- "Penelhum (Terence) - Immortality: Introduction", 1973
- "Simons (Peter) - Review of 'Kinds of Being: A Study of Individuation, Identity and the Logic of Sortal Terms' by E. J. Lowe", 1992, Annotations, Internal PDF Link
- A further reading list might start with:-
- General:
- "Blose (B.L.) - Materialism and Disembodied Minds", 1981, Internal PDF Link
- "Carter (William) - Plantinga on Disembodied Existence", 1972, Internal PDF Link
- "Donnelly (John) - Suicide and Rationality", 1978, Read = 60%
- "Drange (Theodore M.) - Conceptual Problems Confronting a Totally Disembodied Afterlife", 2015
- "Hershenov (David) & Koch-Hershenov (Rose J.) - Purgatory", 2017, External Link, Internal PDF Link, Read = 5%
- "Lakoff (George) & Johnson (Mark) - Philosophy in the Flesh: The Embodied Mind and Its Challenge to Western Thought", 1999, Book, Footnote30
- "Moulder (James) - In Defense of Immaterial Persons", 1972
- "Penelhum (Terence) - Survival and Disembodied Existence", 1970, Book
- "Perrett (Roy W.) - Disembodied Existence", 1987
- "Tye (Michael) - On the Possibility of Disembodied Existence", 1983
- "Unger (Peter) - Why We May Become Disembodied, But To No Avail", 2006, Footnote31
- For a list of Works that have been considered, but have missed the cut for inclusion in this Section of my Thesis, see the following:-
- Read: No items to list.
- Further Reading: No items to list.
- This is mostly a place-holder32.
In-Page Footnotes
Footnote 2:
- This is the write-up as it was when this Abstract was last output, with text as at the timestamp indicated (06/07/2023 00:43:12).
- Link to Latest Write-Up Note.
Footnote 27:
- I’ve not attended to these very closely.
Footnote 30:
- This is a long and controversial book, calling on us to face up to the fact that the mind isn’t disembodied.
- I doubt I’ll have the time to read it!
Footnote 31:
Text Colour Conventions (see disclaimer)
- Blue: Text by me; © Theo Todman, 2026