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Books > Humanities > Philosophy > Topics in philosophy > Philosophy of mind
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The Phenomenal Self (Hardcover)
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The Phenomenal Self (Hardcover)
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Barry Dainton presents a fascinating new account of the self, the
key to which is experiential or phenomenal continuity.
Provided our mental life continues we can easily imagine ourselves
surviving the most dramatic physical alterations, or even moving
from one body to another. It was this fact that led John Locke to
conclude that a credible account of our persistence conditions - an
account which reflects how we actually conceive of ourselves -
should be framed in terms of mental rather than material
continuity. But mental continuity comes in different forms. Most of
Locke's contemporary followers agree that our continued existence
is secured by psychological continuity, which they take to be made
up of memories, beliefs, intentions, personality traits, and the
like. Dainton argues that that a better and more believable account
can be framed in terms of the sort of continuity we find in our
streams of consciousness from moment to moment. Why? Simply because
provided this continuity is not lost - provided our streams of
consciousness flow on - we can easily imagine ourselves surviving
the most dramatic psychological alterations. Phenomenal continuity
seems to provide a more reliable guide to our persistence than any
form of continuity. The Phenomenal Self is a full-scale defence and
elaboration of this premise.
The first task is arriving at an adequate understanding of
phenomenal unity and continuity. This achieved, Dainton turns to
the most pressing problem facing any experience-based approach:
losses of consciousness. How can we survive them? He shows how the
problem can be solved in a satisfactory manner by construing
ourselves as systems of experiential capacities. He thenmoves on to
explore a range of further issues. How simple can a self be? How
are we related to our bodies? Is our persistence an all-or-nothing
affair? Do our minds consist of parts which could enjoy an
independent existence? Is it metaphysically intelligible to
construe ourselves as systems of capacities? The book concludes
with a novel treatment of fission and fusion.
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