Personal Identity and Fractured Selves: Perspectives from Philosophy, Ethics, and Neuroscience

6 Diminished and Fractured Selves

chapter six Diminished and Fractured Selves John Perry, Ph.D. Alarge part of our daily life is based on knowing what to expect from human beings, and we are amazingly good at it, given how complicated humans are. After all, my brain and your brain are about as complicated as anything the world has to o≠er, and they control large systems, hundreds of pounds in my case, that to a casual observer might appear completely unpredictable . Consider all of the people attending this symposium. If we traced our trajectories back over the past few weeks, we would probably find paths that went all over the United States, as well as several other countries, in an unrelated fashion. And yet these paths come together today, and each of us pretty confidently expected the others to be here. From the moment I leave my house in the morning to go to work, if not before , my life is at the mercy of my ability to figure out what people are going to do. If I’m walking or on my bike, scores of people will drive by who are capable of killing me with their cars. And yet, when I come to corners, a glance at the driver slowing down or speeding up, making eye contact or looking the other way, is usually enough for me to decide whether to cross or stay put. I put my life on the line like this almost every day, and I’ve made it to my six- ties. Amazing, really. I must possess a pretty good way of telling what’s going on with people and predicting what they will do. We are able to deal with people e≠ectively because we are all in possession of one of the great intellectual accomplishments of humans, which I’ll call the person theory. The person theory isn’t a scientific theory but, rather, a large, often vague, picture of how humans work that relates inner states and aspects of brains and central nervous systems—called the mind in the person theory —to one another and to observable stimuli and behavior. This theory allows us to make imprecise but helpful predictions about what people will do and gives us guidance on how we ought to treat them. The theory has many virtues. But it has its limits. The person theory is based on a system of indirect classification. We describe the internal states of humans and predict their actions on the basis of the functions those internal states perform when a wellfunctioning person is connected in the normal way with the external world. The theory breaks down, both descriptively and normatively, when these conditions are not met. The four case studies we are to consider put some of these limits on display. The key features of the person theory are intentionality, local rationality, autonomy, identity (see appendix at the end of the chapter), and self. We rely on the theory to construct identities, both of ourselves and others. Our understanding of ourselves and others appeals to these identities. When they break down, our understanding of persons, both of ourselves and others, breaks down. When this happens, we have to take a step backward and try to understand, in new ways, what is going on. I’ll first describe what I take to be the key concepts of the person theory and then try to step back and analyze the case studies, in which, in various ways, the person theory breaks down. The Basics of the Person Theory Intentionality Intentionality is a philosopher’s term for a variety of mental states and activities that we are able to describe in terms of the world. I’m talking about some of the most ordinary and ubiquitous concepts that we use to describe people, such as belief, desire, knowledge, hope, and fear. Thinking in terms of these concepts is second nature to us, but when looked at closely, they are rather puzzling and amazing. 130 Philosophers Hold Forth I assume you believe that Sacramento is the capital of California. Because you have this belief, you will act in certain ways. If asked what the capital of California is, you will move your lips and vocal chords in such a way as to emit the sound “Sacramento.” The belief must be something inside you, capable of being a partial cause of neurons firing and muscles...