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February 2001

How Many Persons Are You?!? Part 4

To be honest, I don't believe it either.
What about this explanation? - The reason both of the hemispheres appear to qualify as persons is that there is only one person who spans BOTH of the hemispheres, even when the commisures between the two are cut. As Wilkes(1988) argues, it is perhaps because of this definite physical cut that we begin to wonder whether we are really two persons.

It is all very confusing however. It seems the difficulty that we are faced with is this - what is a person?
If your definition of a person includes 'Only one person per body', then you will not be convinced that we could be two persons.
If you believe personhood is partly immaterial, spiritual, then you may wonder if you should count how many people you are.

Whatever we can conclude, I think you will agree with me that this is a fascinating topic. I would love to hear your opinions on the matter.

Why don't you log onto the Discussion Forum right now?

If you want to look at some further articles first however, why not check out the online resources below -

'Dennet on the Split Brain' by Roland Puccetti
In this article, Puccetti examines Daniel Dennet's arguments against split brain patients illustrating two persons - and knocks them down, of course! This paper was found on an excellent online resource of papers on consciousness -
Online Papers on Consciousness
Finally, if you wish to learn more about the brain, why not visit -
The Brain Project - This site covers philosophical and psychological issues and is really excellent! Click on Neurophysiology - it's very interesting!

If you have access to a good public library or university library, why not check out some of my references which I used to help write my own paper! They are listed on the following page.

Please take this opportunity to evaluate my site by visiting my Guestbook. It took me a long time to put the site together, so I'd really appreciate your feedback. Thank you!
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References

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