Thought Experiments about Identity, Mind, Body, and Selves

I discussed the following Ep 8 a Self or not a Self with my guest Nate Sheff.

Thought Experiment 1: Mind Swap

Setup-original persons:

• Person 1: Mind 1, Body 1
• Person 2: Mind 2, Body 2

Experiment: swap minds, so that Mind 1 is in Body 2 and that Mind 2 is in Body 1, resulting in:

• Person 3: Mind 1, Body 2,
• Person 4: Mind 2, Body 1

Question: 

Who is Person 3?

Thought Experiment 2: Mind Fission

Setup-original persons:

• Person 1: Mind 1, Body 1
• Person 2: Mind 2, Body 2
• Person 3: Mind 3, Body 3

Experiment: divide Mind 1 into two hemispheres. Remove Mind 2 from Body 2 and Mind 3 from Body 3. Put one hemisphere of Mind 1 into Body 2. Put the other hemisphere of Mind 1 into Body 3, resulting in:

• Person 4: Half Mind 1, Body 2
• Person 5: Half Mind 1, Body 3

Question:

Where is Person 1? Who is Person 4 and Person 5?

Conclusions

There are no souls!

For the mind swap, I think Person 3 would think and feel like they were Person 1. That leads me to suspect that Person 3 is Person 1.

For the mind fusion, it's a lot less clear to me. I suspect both Person 4 and Person 5 will feel like they are Person 1. One of the two would most likely have better communication skills and be able to express being Person 1 better. I'm tempted to say both are Person 1, but they both become new people going forward. Something like, Person 1a and Person 1b.

Both thought experiments capture my belief that the self and identity are in the psychological continuity and not the bodily continuity. I don't mean to suggest that the body, hormones, senses, nervous system, and enviornment do not influence the mind. They do. The mind is shaped by the body, but what makes a person a person over time is the continuity of what Hume calls a bundle of perceptions: the processing of sensations, emotions, memory, thoughts, interpretations, and self-awareness. The mind is the present emergent state of a psychological continuity that makes a person a person, more commonly known as a self!

An existing self that The Buddha, Hume, and Parfit can all agree exists, but exists as an emergent property of perceptions.