2026-09-14
Agenda
Agenda
Argument
CONJOINED DRAMA
Abby is dating Arie. Brittany is secretly in love with Arie and has always been jealous of their relationship. One night, while Abby is sleeping, Brittany confesses her feelings to Arie, and Arie kisses her. Later, when Abby finds out, she strangles Brittany.
Argument
Freaky Friday
On Friday morning, something happens. The person in Anna’s body looks in the mirror in disbelief. “Why,” she thinks to herself, “am I in my teenage daughter’s body?” Meanwhile, the person in Tess’s body looks in the mirror in horror. “Why,” she thinks to herself, “am I in my mom’s middle-aged body?”
The Body Swap Argument
FREAKY FRIDAY is just one example among many. Can you think of other cases in which a person switches bodies?
Argument
Question: What does the Soul Account say about FREAKY FRIDAY?
A soul is an immaterial part of you—traditionally, the part responsible for your ability to think, and the part responsible for your ability to survive death.
The belief in souls is called Dualism—there are two fundamentally different kinds of substance in the world: material and immaterial.
Materialists reject Dualism, holding there are only material substances, and so there are no souls.
Blank Slate Reincarnation
The gods run a soul-cleaning shop. It works kind of like a laundry mat. When you die, your soul is sent to the shop, where it waits is turn to go through a soul-cleaning machine. This machine washes the soul clean of all lingering psychological remnants of its previous incarnation. Once clean, the soul is sent back into the world, where it enters the body of a newborn.
You share a part with the newborn. But are you the same person as the newborn?
Continuous Reincarnation
When Billy was about to be born, there was a snafu: all the souls were spoken for. One soul was temporarily available: it was needed for Sandy, due to be born a minute later. So they gave Billy that soul, but took it back after one minute. By then, another soul was temporarily available: it was needed for Janice, due to be born a minute later. So they used that soul temporarily for Billy. And so on: Billy has received a new soul every minute of his life.
What does the Same Soul Theory say about Billy? Do you agree?
So, to reiterate:
Argument
TOTAL AMNESIA
Jiwoo is stranded on a deserted island. Adding injury to insult, a coconut fell on Jiwoo’s head at noon today, instantly resulting in total amnesia. She can’t remember how she got on the island or anything else about her past. She can’t even remember her own name.
What does the PDA say about this case? Do you agree?
TOTAL BLACKOUT
Minjun is stranded on a deserted island. Adding injury to insult, a coconut fell on Minjun’s head at noon today, temporarily knocking him unconscious. While unconscious, he is not dreaming, nor does he have any thoughts or experiences or any physical sensations whatsoever. He is completely blacked out. When he finally awakens hours later, it will feel as if no time has passed.
What does the PDA say about this case? Do you agree?
DOUBLE TROUBLE
Rachel uploads JoJo’s neural states to Chad’s brain, and also accidentally uploads them to Alex’s brain as well. As a result, both the person with Chad’s original body and the person with Alex’s original body wake up and say ‘My name is JoJo’. Both can tell you all about JoJo’s past; neither can tell you anything about Chad or Alex’s past. She also obliterates JoJo’s original body.
What does the Same Body Account say about this case? What does the Soul Account say? What does the PDA account say?
The Fission Argument
Suppose Jojo agreed to be part of Rachel’s experiment because she had terminal cancer. And suppose Rachel uploaded Jojo’s states to both Chad’s brain and Alex’s brain because the procedure only works half the time, and she wanted to increase Jojo’s chances of survival.
Does this seem right to you?
Agenda
What do you think happens to the original person (Jojo) in fission cases? If you are inclined to endorse the answer given by one of the three accounts discussed—the Same Body Account, the Soul Account, or the Psychological Descendant Account—how would you defend that account against the objections we have seen? If you are inclined to reject all three answers, what do you think we should say about the case?