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Metaphysics

Could Two People Inhabit One Body?

Nicola Webber asks you (and you).

When we think of a person, we usually think of someone with a brain and a single unified consciousness. This view has come under fire from some philosophers who argue it’s possible for more than one person to inhabit a body – a possibility hinted at through ‘split brain’ patients, who have had the cerebral commissures (nerve fibres) linking their brain hemispheres cut. Different consciousnesses in each brain hemisphere would mean that two people can cohabit a brain. I will be considering arguments from Roland Puccetti, Eugene Mills and Derek Parfit, all leading to the conclusion that not only is it possible for two people to be in the same place at the same time, but that it’s always potentially so. I’ll be arguing from the standpoint that what matters for personal identity is psychological continuity and connectedness, not bodily continuity.

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