Roland Puccetti (1994) Narrative Richness as a Necessary Condition for the Self
. Psycoloquy: 5(18) Split Brain (7)
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Psycoloquy 5(18): Narrative Richness as a Necessary Condition for the Self
NARRATIVE RICHNESS AS A NECESSARY CONDITION FOR THE SELF
Reply to Hardcastle, Leiber, Mortensen et al., Pessin & Revonsuo on
Puccetti on Split Brain
Roland Puccetti
Philosophy Department
Dalhousie University
Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
DALPHIL@ac.dal.ca
Abstract
Hardcastle supports my claim that Dennett's criterion for
conscious selfhood -- having a robust narrative center of gravity
--is counterintuitively narrow. Revonsuo provides strong empirical
evidence in favor of this same view. Leiber suggests that my
defence of right-hemisphere self-consciousness depends upon my
accepting mind-brain identity theory, but this is incorrect.
Mortensen et al. think I need their notion of "part-persons" to
describe the disconnected cerebral hemispheres: I find it simpler
to extend the notion of "person" to the nonspeaking hemisphere,
yielding two persons per split-brain patient. Pessin's main
critical reaction rests on a confusion about Dennett's "Multiple
Drafts" theory of the mind.
Keywords
cartesianism, cell death, cerebral dominance,
consciousness, hemispherectomy, lateralization, mental duality,
mental unity, multiple drafts, split brain.
References
- Dennett, D.C. (1991) Consciousness Explained. Boston: Little, Brown.
- Hardcastle, V.G. (1993) A New Agenda for Studying Consciousness. PSYCOLOQUY 4(57) split-brain.2.hardcastle.
- Leiber, J. (1993) Conscience and Commissurotomy. PSYCOLOQUY 4(58) split-brain.3.leiber.
- Mortensen, C., O'Brien, G & Paterson, B. (1993) Distinctions: Subpersonal and Subconscious. PSYCOLOQUY 4(62) split-brain.5.mortensen.
- Pessin, A. (1993) One Mind Too Many? PSYCOLOQUY 4(64) split-brain.6.pessin.
- Puccetti, R. (in press) Mind with a Double Brain. The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science.
- Puccetti, R. (1993) Dennett on the Split-Brain. PSYCOLOQUY 4(52) split-brain.1.puccetti.
- Puccetti, R. (1973) Brain Bisection and Personal Identity. British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 24: 339-55.
- Revonsuo, A. (1993) Dennett and Dissociations of Consciousness. PSYCOLOQUY 4(59) split-brain.4.revonsuo.