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Personal Identity

Disembodied Existence

(Text as at 06/07/2023 00:43:12)

Plug Note¹

• Thesis Text:
  1. As an Animalist², I don’t hold out much hope for disembodied existence for such beings as ourselves³.
  2. 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 – immortal⁴ souls⁵ that survive the death⁶ of our bodies⁷. 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.
  3. Note that “disembodied” is sometimes used for “disembodied brains”. Since the brain⁸ is part of the body⁹, I cover such possibilities under Brains In Vats¹⁰.
  4. There is some overlap between this topic and at least one topic in Transhumanism¹¹. The idea behind Uploading¹² seems to be that we are “patterns in information¹³ space” (Andy Clark) and these “patterns” could – in principle – be uploaded¹⁴ to a computer¹⁵. The entities resulting from such uploads would appear to be disembodied, at least if their experience (assuming that they are conscious¹⁶) is of having simulated bodies¹⁷ they don’t really have, as in The Matrix. But, all this illusion aside, are these minds¹⁸ actually disembodied, or are their “bodies¹⁹” (parts of) the computer²⁰ that “runs” them?

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  Further Remarks:
  1. I’m not sure this is worth spending much time on, other than as a sub-plot of the investigation that we might be souls²¹ in Chapter_02²² (“What Are We²³?”). However …

References

• Relevant Works cited above: No items to list.
• For a Page of Links²⁴ to this Note₂₅, Click here.
• Works on this topic that I’ve actually read²⁶, include the following:-
  • Aeon:
    1. "Aeon - Video - The undying hydra", 2021, External Link
  • General:
    1. "Hospers (John) - Is the Notion of Disembodied Existence Intelligible?", 1997
    2. "Lowe (E.J.) - Review of Peter Unger's - 'All the Power in the World'", 2008, Annotations, Internal PDF Link
    3. "Olson (Eric) - What Are We? Souls", 2007, Write-Up Note²⁷, Internal PDF Link
    4. "Penelhum (Terence) - Immortality: Introduction", 1973
    5. "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:
    1. "Blose (B.L.) - Materialism and Disembodied Minds", 1981, Internal PDF Link
    2. "Carter (William) - Plantinga on Disembodied Existence", 1972, Internal PDF Link
    3. "Donnelly (John) - Suicide and Rationality", 1978, Read = 60%
    4. "Drange (Theodore M.) - Conceptual Problems Confronting a Totally Disembodied Afterlife", 2015
    5. "Hershenov (David) & Koch-Hershenov (Rose J.) - Purgatory", 2017, External Link, Internal PDF Link, Read = 5%
    6. "Lakoff (George) & Johnson (Mark) - Philosophy in the Flesh: The Embodied Mind and Its Challenge to Western Thought", 1999, Book, Footnote₂₈
    7. "Moulder (James) - In Defense of Immaterial Persons", 1972
    8. "Penelhum (Terence) - Survival and Disembodied Existence", 1970, Book
    9. "Perrett (Roy W.) - Disembodied Existence", 1987
    10. "Tye (Michael) - On the Possibility of Disembodied Existence", 1983
    11. "Unger (Peter) - Why We May Become Disembodied, But To No Avail", 2006, Footnote₂₉

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• 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:-
  1. Read: No items to list.
  2. Further Reading: No items to list.
• This is mostly a place-holder³⁰.

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In-Page Footnotes:

Footnote 25:

• I’ve not attended to these very closely.

Footnote 28:

• 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 29:

• This may not be worth reading, if Lowe’s rubbishing review ("Lowe (E.J.) - Review of Peter Unger's - 'All the Power in the World'") is anything to go by.

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Table of the Previous 7 Versions of this Note:

Date	Length	Title
20/09/2022 11:24:00	3470	Disembodied Existence
16/05/2022 21:18:43	3089	Disembodied Existence
11/02/2021 11:29:46	2816	Disembodied Existence
19/09/2020 20:29:46	2481	Disembodied Existence
24/04/2018 22:19:12	2841	Disembodied Existence
12/07/2015 15:47:31	1588	Disembodied Existence
12/08/2007 10:17:46	80	Disembodied Persons

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Note last updated	Reading List for this Topic	Parent Topic
06/07/2023 00:43:12	Disembodied Existence	Souls

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Summary of Notes Referenced by This Note

Animalism	Awaiting Attention (Personal Identity)	Body	Brain	Brains in Vats
Computers	Consciousness	Death	Immortality	Information
Mind	Note Links Explanation	Olson - What Are We? Souls	Plug Note Apologia	Souls
Thesis - Chapter 02 (What are We?)	Transhumanism	Uploading	What are We?	Works Read - Explanation

To access information, click on one of the links in the table above.

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Summary of Notes Citing This Note

Baker - Persons in the Material World	Cartesian Ego	Christian Materialism	Death	Existence
Holes & Smiles	Physical Continuity	PID Note, Book & Paper Usage, 2, 3	Reincarnation	Thesis - Chapter 02 (What are We?)
Thesis - Chapter 04 (Basic Metaphysical Issues)	Thesis - Chapter 05 (Persistence and Time)	Thesis - Chapter 07 (The Constitution View and Arguments for It)	Thesis - Chapter 09 (Arguments against the Constitution View)	Thesis - Chapter 11 (Resurrection), 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
Thesis - Chapter 12 (Conclusion)	Thesis - Current Stance	Thesis - Personal Identity, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9	Website Generator Documentation - Functors, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

To access information, click on one of the links in the table above.

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Authors, Books & Papers Citing this Note

Author	Title	Medium	Extra Links	Read?
Aeon	Video - The undying hydra	Paper		Yes
Bacchiocchi (Samuele)	Immortality or Resurrection? A Biblical Study on Human Nature and Destiny	Paper	2
Baker (Lynne Rudder)	Death and the Afterlife	Paper
Baker (Lynne Rudder)	Persons in the Material World	Paper		Yes
Belshaw (Christopher)	Review of Paul Snowdon's 'Persons, Animals, Ourselves'	Paper		Yes
Blose (B.L.)	Materialism and Disembodied Minds	Paper	2, 3
Bourgeois (Warren)	Contemporary Philosophers' Views on Persons: Wiggins and Williams	Paper
Cockburn (David)	The Mind, the Brain and the Face	Paper
Cooper (John)	Body, Soul and Life Everlasting: Preface to the Second Printing	Paper	2	Yes
Corcoran (Kevin)	Rethinking Human Nature: A Christian Materialist Alternative to the Soul	Book
Corcoran (Kevin)	Soul, Body and Survival: Introduction - Soul or Body?	Paper		Yes
Donnelly (John)	Suicide and Rationality	Paper	2, 3
Drange (Theodore M.)	Conceptual Problems Confronting a Totally Disembodied Afterlife	Paper
Dresser (Sam)	How to not fear your death	Paper		Yes
Eales (Evan)	Naturalism and Physicalism	Paper
Edwards (Paul)	Immortality: Introduction	Paper
Gasser (Georg)	Personal Identity and Resurrection: Introduction	Paper		Yes
Geach (Peter)	God and the Soul (Analytical ToC)	Paper		Yes
Gelernter (David)	Mirror Worlds	Book
Graham (George)	Philosophy of Mind: An Introduction - Preface	Paper		Yes
Harrison (Jonathan)	God, Freedom and Immortality: Preface & Introduction	Paper	2	Yes
Hershenov (David)	Review of Nancey Murphy's 'Bodies and Souls, or Spirited Bodies?'	Paper		Yes
Hershenov (David) & Koch-Hershenov (Rose J.)	Purgatory	Paper
Hick (John)	An Irenaean Theodicy: Response to Critiques	Paper		Yes
Hick (John)	Death and Eternal Life	Book
Hoffman (Joshua) & Rosenkrantz (Gary)	Are Souls Unintelligible?	Paper
Hospers (John)	Is the Notion of Disembodied Existence Intelligible?	Paper	2, 3	Yes
Lakoff (George) & Johnson (Mark)	Philosophy in the Flesh: The Embodied Mind and Its Challenge to Western Thought	Book	2
Lerner (Berel Dov)	Review of 'Personal Identity and Ethics: A Brief Introduction' by David Shoemaker	Paper		Yes
Lowe (E.J.)	Non-Cartesian Substance Dualism and the Problem of Mental Causation	Paper
Lowe (E.J.)	Review of Peter Unger's - 'All the Power in the World'	Paper		Yes
Madden (Rory)	Externalism and Brain Transplants	Paper
Merricks (Trenton)	The Resurrection of the Body	Paper
Olding (A.)	Resurrection Bodies and Resurrection Worlds	Paper
Olson (Eric)	Psychology and Personal Identity	Paper	2	Yes
Penelhum (Terence)	Immortality: Introduction	Paper	2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11	Yes
Penelhum (Terence)	Personal Identity, Memory, and Survival	Paper
Penelhum (Terence)	Survival and Disembodied Existence	Book	2, 3, 4
Perrett (Roy W.)	Disembodied Existence	Paper
Peters (Ted)	Resurrection of the Very Embodied Soul?	Paper
Puccetti (Roland)	The Conquest of Death	Paper
Quinn (Philip L.)	On the Intrinsic Value of Human Persons	Paper
Quinton (Anthony)	The Soul	Paper		Yes
Rey (Georges)	Meta-atheism: Religious Avowal as Self-Deception	Paper		Yes
Sacks (Oliver)	The Man who Mistook his Wife for a Hat	Book
Sharma (Ramesh Kumar)	Dreamless Sleep and Some Related Philosophical Issues	Paper
Shoemaker (David)	Personal Identity, Rational Anticipation, and Self-Concern	Paper		Yes
Shoemaker (Sydney)	Embodiment and Behavior	Paper		Yes
Shoemaker (Sydney)	Personal Identity: a Materialist Account	Paper
Simons (Peter)	Review of 'Kinds of Being: A Study of Individuation, Identity and the Logic of Sortal Terms' by E. J. Lowe	Paper	2, 3, 4	Yes
Stewart-Williams (Steve)	On the Origin of Afterlife Beliefs by Means of Memetic Selection	Paper		Yes
Sturgeon (Scott)	Zombies and Ghosts	Paper
Thomas (Janice L.)	Descartes' arguments for dualism	Paper		Yes
Thomas (Janice L.)	Plato's Phaedo	Paper		Yes
Thomas (Janice L.)	The identity theory	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Cartesian Ego	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Chapter 02 (What Are We?)	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Chapter 04 (Basic Metaphysical Issues)	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Chapter 05 (Persistence and Time)	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Chapter 07 (The Constitution View and Arguments for It)	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Chapter 09 (Arguments against the Constitution View)	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Chapter 11 (Resurrection)	Paper	2, 3, 4, 5, 6	Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Chapter 12 (Conclusion)	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Christian Materialism	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Current Position	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Death	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Existence	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Holes & Smiles	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Personal Identity	Paper	2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9	Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Physical Continuity	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Reincarnation	Paper		Yes
Tye (Michael)	On the Possibility of Disembodied Existence	Paper	2
Unger (Peter)	All the Power in the World	Book	2, 3
Unger (Peter)	Why We May Become Disembodied, But To No Avail	Paper	2, 3
Wright (N.T.)	Shadows, Souls and Where They Go: Life Beyond Death in Ancient Paganism	Paper
Wright (N.T.)	Time to Wake Up (2): Hope Beyond Death in Post-Biblical Judaism	Paper
Zimmerman (Dean)	Video: Can We Survive Our Death?	Paper		Yes

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References & Reading List

Author	Title	Medium	Source	Read?
Aeon	Video - The undying hydra	Paper - Cited	Aeon, 25 May 2021	Yes
Blose (B.L.)	Materialism and Disembodied Minds	Paper - Cited	Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, Vol. 42, No. 1, Sep., 1981, pp. 59-74	No
Carter (William)	Plantinga on Disembodied Existence	Paper - By Subtopic	Philosophical Review 81, No. 3, Jul., 1972, pp. 360-363, pp. 360-363	No
Drange (Theodore M.)	Conceptual Problems Confronting a Totally Disembodied Afterlife	Paper - By Subtopic	Martin & Augustine - The Myth of an Afterlife, Part 2, Chapter 12	No
Edwards (Paul), Ed.	Immortality	Book - By Subtopic (via Paper By Subtopic)	Edwards (Paul), Ed. - Immortality	4%
Ellis (Brian)	Australasian Journal of Philosophy - 61.3 (September 1983)	Book - By Subtopic (via Paper By Subtopic)	Ellis (Brian) - Australasian Journal of Philosophy - 61.3 (September 1983)	83%
Hospers (John)	Is the Notion of Disembodied Existence Intelligible?	Paper - By Subtopic	Edwards - Immortality, pp, 279-281	Yes
Lakoff (George) & Johnson (Mark)	Philosophy in the Flesh: The Embodied Mind and Its Challenge to Western Thought	Book - Cited	Lakoff (George) & Johnson (Mark) - Philosophy in the Flesh: The Embodied Mind and Its Challenge to Western Thought	No
Martin (L. Michael) & Augustine (Keith)	The Myth of an Afterlife: The Case against Life After Death	Book - By Subtopic (via Paper By Subtopic)	Martin (L. Michael) & Augustine (Keith) - The Myth of an Afterlife: The Case against Life After Death	15%
Moulder (James)	In Defense of Immaterial Persons	Paper - Cited	Philosophical Papers 1972, 38-55	No
Penelhum (Terence)	Disembodied Agency	Paper - By Subtopic	Penelhum - Survival and Disembodied Existence, 1970, Chapter 3	No
Penelhum (Terence)	Disembodied Existence and Perception	Paper - By Subtopic	Penelhum - Survival and Disembodied Existence, 1970, Chapter 2	No
Penelhum (Terence)	Incorporeal Identity	Paper - By Subtopic	Penelhum - Survival and Disembodied Existence, 1970, Chapter 6	No
Penelhum (Terence)	Survival and Disembodied Existence	Book - Cited	Penelhum (Terence) - Survival and Disembodied Existence	No
Penelhum (Terence)	Survival and Disembodied Existence: Preliminaries	Paper - By Subtopic	Penelhum - Survival and Disembodied Existence, 1970, Chapter 1	No
Perrett (Roy W.)	Death and Immortality	Book - By Subtopic (via Paper By Subtopic)	Perrett (Roy W.) - Death and Immortality	3%
Perrett (Roy W.)	Disembodied Existence	Paper - By Subtopic	Perrett - Death and Immortality - 1987, Chapter 6	No
Sacks (Oliver)	The Disembodied Lady	Paper - By Subtopic	Sacks - The Man who Mistook his Wife for a Hat, Part 1 (Losses), Chapter 3	No
Sacks (Oliver)	The Man who Mistook his Wife for a Hat	Book - By Subtopic (via Paper By Subtopic)	Sacks (Oliver) - The Man who Mistook his Wife for a Hat	7%
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Disembodied Existence	Paper - By Subtopic		Yes
Tye (Michael)	On the Possibility of Disembodied Existence	Paper - By Subtopic	Australasian Journal of Philosophy - 61.3 (September 1983)	No
Unger (Peter)	All the Power in the World	Book - By Subtopic (via Paper By Subtopic)	Unger (Peter) - All the Power in the World	No
Unger (Peter)	Why We May Become Disembodied, But To No Avail	Paper - By Subtopic	Unger - All the Power in the World, 2006, Chapter 8	No

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Text Colour Conventions

1. Blue: Text by me; © Theo Todman, 2026

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