Theo Todman's Web Page - Notes Pages

Personal Identity

Brain

(Text as at 26/11/2007 23:25:26)

*** THIS IS NOT THE LATEST VERSION OF THIS NOTE ***

There is a view that we¹ are really, most fundamentally, our brains. It seems to promise some good things from both the “psychological² criterion” and “bodily³ criterion” camps, since the brain is indeed part of the body⁴, but, in the absence of a soul⁵, the source of all our psychological functions. However, we seem to be much more than our brains. After all, who would want to be a BIV⁶ (Brain in a Vat)? According to Johnston, BIVs are “maximally mutilated” human beings; which seems to be along the right lines. Note the important distinction between your surviving in a maximally mutilated state you “really” being your brain.

This is an issue the Animalist has to contend with - whether a BIV is an animal. Snowdon claims that no-one seems to think this, a view that Olson shares but on which he may be open to objection. He says that an animal with a prosthetic leg is a smaller animal with something non-animal attached. If this is admitted, don’t we end up with a sorites argument, that a BIV is a (very much) smaller animal? Transplantation⁷ of all sorts seems to involve fusion⁸, with its logical problems for identity⁹ (not just for persons). The big question is whether an animal’s brain is just another organ (like its liver) or whether it has some other status. That it is somehow special can be presupposed if we start conceptually with the brain as the core from which other parts are shaved off. Whether this is the right approach depends, I think, on what the brain does for the animal, and where the animal is on the phylogenetic tree.

Why is the Woody Allen expostulation about his brain (in Sleeper) “It’s my second favourite organ” amusing? Firstly, of course, because of the sexual innuendo and the ultimately strange prioritisation (since you can’t enjoy sexual excitement without a brain), but also, I think, because your brain isn’t an organ that you “have”. Without your brain, there’s no “you” at all, or at least this is a strong intuition. You can obviously (given even today’s technology), do without a liver, but “you” can’t do without your brain, at least not in anything like the same way – nor, for that matter, can your body (this is a second issue, and has to do with the regulation of the organism).

The issue fundamentally concerns the integrity of organisms¹⁰. It is said that a brain isn’t an organism; but does an organism have to be self-supporting (the main reason for denying the status of organisms to disembodied brains)?

These issues are especially important when we consider various Thought Experiments¹¹, in particular Brain Transplants¹².