Theo Todman's Web Page - Notes Pages

Personal Identity

Brain

(Text as at 14/03/2018 10:07:41)

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

Plug Note₁

• There is a view that we are² really, most fundamentally, our brains. It seems to promise some good things from both the “psychological criterion³” and “bodily criterion⁴” camps, since the brain is indeed part of the body⁵, and, in the absence of a soul⁶, 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 BIV⁷ (Brain in a Vat)? According to Johnston (see "Johnston (Mark) - Human Beings"), 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 (as a brain) and you “really” being your brain.
• This is an issue Animalism⁸ has to contend with - whether a BIV is an animal. Paul Snowdon claims₉ 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 sorites¹⁰ argument, that a BIV is a (very much) smaller animal; though not, I think, with any paradox?
• 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. The brain is a much more important organ in some animals than others; in some lower animals it has no psychological functions and (maybe) its regulatory functions aren’t essential₁₁.
• Why is the Woody Allen expostulation that his brain (in Sleeper) “(is) 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, and it seems that on a life-support machine your body can do without its brain – where the brain is looked upon merely as a regulator. But the reference of “you¹²” is a bit slippery in these contexts. There is a sense in which you as an organism can do without a brain – on life support – but “you” as an essentially psychological being cannot. The animalists claim that you – being identical to an animal – have no essential psychological predicates; yet it is difficult to resist the intuition that there’s a reference of “you” that does have essential psychological predicates. This is to you as a person¹³ – but the big question is whether this person is a separate substance constituted by¹⁴ the human animal, or is just a way of describing the animal when possessed of the appropriate psychological predicates. Saying that you can’t do without your brain is just another way of saying that your psychological predicates are those most important to you (the animal); those without which the other predicates cannot be enjoyed.
• The issue fundamentally concerns the integrity of organisms¹⁵. 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)? After all, we seem to be allowing that an organism on life support is correctly described as an organism. We’ll discuss this further in its place.
• These issues are especially important when we consider various Thought Experiments¹⁶, in particular Brain Transplants¹⁷. Transplantation¹⁸ of all sorts seems to involve fusion¹⁹, with its logical problems for identity²⁰ (not just for persons).
• Given that brains are important in lots of contexts related to personal identity, it is important to understand how they work – or at least to have some familiarity with some of what is known about how they work. Consequently, the reading lists below have some books on neuroscience. It is difficult to decide how the lists should be divided between this Note and that on the Brain Criterion. As a first stab, the bulk appear under this Note, though some may be moved as I get further into the topic.
• I’ve tried to exclude from the lists items covered in other related notes, in particular:-
  → BIVs²¹
  → Brain Death²²
  → Brain State Transfers²³
  → Brain Transplants²⁴
  → Commissurotomy²⁵
  → Consciousness²⁶
  → Siliconisation²⁷
• Works on this topic that I’ve actually read₂₈, include₂₉ the following:-
  1. "Bear (Mark), Connors (Barry) & Paradiso (Michael) - Neuroscience", Bear Etc.
  2. "Bess (Michael) - Why upgrading your brain could make you less human", Bess
  3. "Churchland (Patricia) - The Brains Behind Morality", Churchland
  4. "Churchland (Patricia) - Brain-wise: Studies in Neurophilosophy", Churchland
  5. "Churchland (Patricia) - Neurophilosophy - Towards a Unified Science of the Mind/Brain", Churchland
  6. "Crane (Tim) - The Mental States of Persons and their Brains", Crane
  7. "Damasio (Antonio) - Descartes' Error: Emotion, Reason and the Human Brain", Damasio
  8. "Dennett (Daniel) - Where Am I?", Dennett
  9. "Edwards (Paul) - The Dependence of Consciousness on the Brain", Edwards
  10. "Epstein (Robert) - The empty brain", Epstein
  11. "Genova (Lisa) - Still Alice", Genova
  12. "Graziano (Michael) - Build-a-brain", Graziano
  13. "Johnston (Mark) - Human Beings", Johnston
  14. "Kaku (Michio) - The Future of the Mind: The Scientific Quest To Understand, Enhance and Empower the Mind", Kaku
  15. "Lewin (Roger) - Is Your Brain Really Necessary?", Lewin
  16. "MacKay (Donald) - Brains, Machines & Persons", MacKay
  17. "Marsh (Henry) - Do No Harm: Stories of Life, Death and Brain Surgery", Marsh
  18. "Miller (Kenneth D.) - Will You Ever Be Able to Upload Your Brain?", Miller
  19. "Parkin (Alan) - Explorations in Cognitive Neuropsychology", Parkin
  20. "Steinhart (Eric) - Persons Versus Brains: Biological Intelligence in Human Organisms", Steinhart
• A reading list (where not covered elsewhere) might start with:-
  1. "Andrewes (David) - Neuropsychology: From Theory to Practice", Andrewes
  2. "Baker (Peter) - An Explanation of How Brains Think", Baker (Peter)
  3. "Bennett (M.R.) & Hacker (P.M.S.) - Philosophical Foundations of Neuroscience", Bennett & Hacker
  4. "Blakemore (Colin) & Greenfield (Susan), Eds. - Mindwaves: Thoughts on Intelligence, Identity and Consciousness", Blakemore & Greenfield
  5. "Borst (C.V.), Ed. - The Mind-Brain Identity Theory", Borst
  6. "Changizi (Mark A.) - The Brain from 25,000 Feet", Changizi
  7. "Claxton (Guy) - Intelligence in the Flesh: Why Your Mind Needs Your Body Much More Than it Thinks", Claxton
  8. "Damasio (Antonio), Ed. - The 'Scientific American' Book of the Brain: The Best Writing on Consciousness", Damasio
  9. "DeMyer (William) - Neuroanatomy", DeMyer
  10. "Dennett (Daniel) - Brainchildren - Essays on Designing Minds", Dennett
  11. "Eccles (John) - Evolution of the Brain, Creation of the Self", Eccles
  12. "Feinberg (Todd) - Altered Egos: How the Brain Creates the Self", Feinberg
  13. "Greenfield (Susan) - Soul, Brain and Mind", Greenfield
  14. "Jubak (Jim) - In the Image of the Brain - Breaking the Barrier Between the Human Mind and Intelligent Machines", Jubak
  15. "Kinsbourne (Marcel) - Asymmetrical Function of the Brain", Kinsbourne
  16. "Obler (Loraine K.) & Gjerlow (Kris) - Language and the Brain", Obler
  17. "Popper (Karl) & Eccles (John) - The Self and Its Brain", Popper & Eccles
  18. "Restak (Richard) - The Modular Brain", Restak
  19. "Smart (J.C.C.) - The Mind/Brain Identity Theory", Smart
  20. "Wilkerson (T.E.) - Minds, Brains and People", Wilkerson
  21. "Wills (Christopher) - The Runaway Brain - The Evolution of Human Uniqueness", Wills
• This is mostly a place-holder³⁰.