Self-consciousness and "split" Brains: The Minds' ICould a single human being ever have multiple conscious minds? Some human beings do. The corpus callosum is a large pathway connecting the two hemispheres of the brain. In the second half of the twentieth century a number of people had this pathway cut through as a treatment for epilepsy. They became colloquially known as split-brain subjects. After the two hemispheres of the brain are cortically separated in this way, they begin to operate unusually independentlyof each other in the realm of thought, action, and conscious experience, almost as if each hemisphere now had a mind of its own. Elizabeth Schechter argues that there are in facttwo minds, subjects of experience, and intentional agents inside each split-brain human being: right and left. On the other hand, each split-brain subject is nonetheless one of us. The key to reconciling these two claims is to understand the ways in which each of us is transformed by self-consciousness. |
Contents
The Unity Puzzle | 1 |
Subjects of Experience and Subjective Perspectives | 23 |
Dual Intentional Agency | 50 |
How Many Minds? | 80 |
Objection from SubCortical Structures | 107 |
Bodies and Being One | 139 |
Self and Other in the SplitBrain Subject | 156 |
The SelfConsciousness Condition of Personhood | 181 |
Duality Myths | 211 |
Appendix | 221 |
Bibliography | 259 |
| 285 | |
| 290 | |
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Common terms and phrases
action activities agent animals answer appear argued argument asked assume assumptions attention basis behavior believe body brain capacity Chapter claim communicate connected consciousness corpus callosum course direct distinct distinguish draw elements emotional et al evidence expectations experience experimental explain eyes fact feel Figure function Gazzaniga hemifield hemisphere human identify identity independently individual instance integration intentions interaction interhemispheric interhemispheric interaction kind lateralized least left hand look means mental mind motor movement nature non-split subjects Note object particular patients perception performance perhaps person personhood perspective philosophers possible presented presumably psychological question Rand reason receive recognize refer relations remaining require respect response right hemisphere seems self-consciousness sense share simply single social speaking specific split split-brain subjects split-brain surgery stimulus structures studies task things thinkers thought transfer trials true unified unity visual