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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
This 4 page paper examines Daniel Dennett’s thought experiment “Where am I?” and argues that the answer is that he is both body and mind, and that the attachment is to life itself. Bibliography lists 2 sources.
Page Count:
4 pages (~225 words per page)
File: KV32_HVwherei.rtf
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
question would be "who am I?" This paper argues that Dennetts identity is tied not to his body or his mind, but to life itself. Discussion Dennetts ingenious thought experiment
is this: suppose he is asked to undertake a dangerous mission to disarm a radioactive warhead under Tulsa, Oklahoma, and in order to do so, has to have his brain
removed to protect it. His brain is kept in a technologically advanced life-support lab in Houston, where it continues to direct his actions through a set of extremely sophisticated radio
connections (Dennett). While his brain remains in Houston his body goes to Tulsa to disarm the warhead hence the question, where am I? That is, is he his brain or
his body? That is the problem that he seeks to solve. The difficult is that he cannot conceive of himself as a disembodied brain. Even when he goes to the
lab and sees his brain floating in a vat, he is aware that he is identifying with the sensation of being outside the vat looking in; that is, the Dennett
at that moment is the physical being. But, he asks, if the human beings personality, thought processes, intelligence, everything that makes us human is located in the brain, shouldnt he
be thinking, Im inside looking at my body (Dennett). Unfortunately, he cannot make that switch; hard as he tries, he continues to see the scene from the point of view
of the observer outside the vat (Dennett). It is beyond his capability to switch to the alternative viewpoint. He goes to Tulsa-his body goes to Tulsa, that is-and works on
the problem while his brain remains in Houston (Dennett). But all the radio inputs start shutting down, and he goes blind, deaf, cannot feel, etc; in effect, his body dies.
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