Andrea Gomes
2/27/2013 12:41:35 pm
I believe that Daniel C. Dennett's short story "Where Am I?" supports the soul theory. In the short story, Dennett's brain is removed from his body and kept in a safe place where it still performs its normal control functions with the help of radio links. After the operation, Dennett cannot decide whether he is in the vat or his body. This proves that Dennett believes that the body and soul are two separate entities, but he can't decide who the true Dennett really is; Is he Yorick or Hamlet? Dennett comes to the conclusion that his location relies on perception; the location of the point of view is also the location of the person. However, when a mishap with the radio links occurs, Dennett's body is irretrievable and his brain is linked to another body. It takes time for Dennett to get used to his new body, however, he never questions whether he is still Dennett. Even when he essentially has two minds, they drift out of sync proving that the real Dennett only lies within his original brain. Therefore, Dennett illustrates that the body and soul are separate and that as long as we have the same soul, we remain the same person.
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David M.
2/3/2015 03:20:49 am
He clearly does not support the idea of a soul or anything divine. He wrote several books detailing that exact stance.
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Jake Pelosi
2/27/2013 12:53:56 pm
Daniel C. Dennett writes "Where Am I" from a first person point of view about his experience as he undergoes a surgery to have his brain removed so he could go into a radioactive tunnel in the earths surface. He talks about how if his brain were in Houston, Texas and he went to California and robbed a bank would he get charged where the brain that committed the crime was or if California would have a felon with an out of state brain. This brings the topic of where a person actually is? A person has a point of view, and the location of that point of view is also the location of a person. I agree with this statement in that where our body and what we see determine our location. His brain being in a tank in Houston there can be complications. If he gets a couple miles away from his brain he cannot track moving objects. When he has pain in his wrist taking Advil doesn't always work. He then needs to call the doctors at Houston and have them codeine to him in virto. He descended towards the radio active warhead that was on the charts on his Geiger counter. He was able to get his brain safety back to his body and even he looked physically different he was still the same person.
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Gabriela Aguayo
2/27/2013 02:02:50 pm
Where Am I
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Cheyenne Rose
2/27/2013 02:55:11 pm
In Daniel C. Dennett's "Where Am I?", he tells the story of being separated from himself. In order to undergo a NASA mission to help remove a "Supersonic Tunneling Underground Device," he had to, in a sense, "remove himself" from the situation.. By that, what I mean, is that he literally had to remove his brain from his body. Now, though he was looking at his brain, and he knew he should be thinking that he was not, in fact, looking at his brain, yet that his eyes were looking at him, be couldnt seem to make himself think that. This posed the question of point of view, and to how much is your point of view to do with where you're looking.. Well... It has everything to do with it, he determined. Was he Yorick, (his brain,) or was he Hamlet? (His body.) And after his tunneling underground adventure, it really became apparent that he was in fact Yorick, for when his body never made it out of the underlayers of the earth, and his brain was hooked up to a different persons body, he still felt like himself, and still had his memories. I believe that Dennett's story supports two different theory's, the Soul Theory, and the memory Theory. I feel there is almost a fine line between the two, because they both have to do with your brain. He still felt like himself, and still had his beliefs, yet he also had his memories and motor functions. After changing bodies completely, he was still the same person. I believe that Dennett's findings conclude that as long as we have the same "soul," and the same memories, we are the same person.
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Julia Eyer
2/27/2013 02:57:48 pm
Written by Daniel C. Dennet, "Where Am I" is an account of a post-brain surgery patient undergoing rehabilitation. After seeing his own brain in a vat and not connected to his body, he starts to wonder if what we have always been taught, that our body and soul work together until we die, is in fact the truth at all. Are we the same person in our own bodies and soul, but with a different brain? Can we survive with just our soul? What are we? Where are we really? Dennet was confused with the matter of if his brain was unattached to his body but could control his motions and movements, how could he act and think independently of the controlling organ. He also begins to wonder if he is in fact Dennet as he gets used to his own body. Undoubtably coming to a conclusion supporting the 'soul theory,' "Where Am I" brings to light the thoughts we often have, just from day to day life; Is there a destiny waiting for us after death? Will my soul live on and leave my body behind? Am I always the same person? Dennet describes how the soul is its own being in its self that brings us each life besides having the biological and physical makeup of a person. If we have the our own soul, we will always be the same person, no matter where our body might be.
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Jackson Graff
2/28/2013 03:58:11 am
In the article "Where Am I", Daniel C. Dennet writes about a man who goes thruough an intense surgery to get his brain taken out. In the article the government wants this man to go underground to take out some radio active material. The only way he can do this is by taking out his brain so he dosnt get radiation poisoning. To do this they put radio receivers on the ends of his nerves after they take out his brain. It works perfectly and the only sinafect is disynes. After the surgery the patient starts to question things. For example, he sees his brain in a tub and starts to wonder why he is not thinking about being in a tub instead he is thinking about looking at his brain. Later on in the article he starts to take this in to more detail, saying that if he was in one part of the country and commits a crime. Will he be committed in that part or in the part of were the brain is.
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Maro RIvera
2/28/2013 10:30:55 am
In "Where Am I" a m an under goes a surgery that removes his brain from his body all for the purpose of him retrieving a piece of radioactive material.The brain would stay safe in a jar and it would still be able to control his body as he went down to get the radioactive material but his body was destroyed trying to retrieve the material. His memories and personality are still intact when he was hooked up to another persons. He doesn't have the same body but he is still the same person that may commit a crime in another country to test out a theory. In the end hes the same person because all the things that define a person are in your mind and soul.
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Thomas Montalbano
2/28/2013 11:47:19 am
Daniel C. Dennet's "Where Am I?" is a recollection of events that supports the theory that the mind is what defines a person's identity. Dennet under-goes brain surgery to remove his brain from his head so he is able to retrieve a Supersonic Underground Traveling Device without damage to his brain. The Procedure is successful and Dennet wakes to find his brain in a vat. He first concludes that he, as a person, is his body because he feels like he is looking at his brain and not his body looking at himself. With his brain separate from his body he is in conflict with his point of view on the philosophy of mind. He ventures for the STUD, but his body is weakened and left underground never to be retrieved. His brain is then hooked up to another body very similar to his old one. Dennet still recalls all of his memories from his past life and concludes that he infact is still alive although his old body is lifeless undeground.
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Kyle DeLima
3/28/2013 05:48:16 pm
(I goofed)
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Genisis Nelson
9/5/2016 10:24:44 am
Within reading the passage, I concluded that Dennett at no time had a relationship or connection with himself prior to the procedure. I believe that he would have been able to shift his point of view had he had an attachment with himself and not easily oblige to a separation. In the beginning of the passage, he focuses on confirming his identity and his point of view in connection with his brain, but never challenges that thought when he is in the new body. Even with our own understandings that personal identity is closely connected to the brain and that thoughts occur in the brain, he is unable to view himself as anywhere other than the location of his body outside the vat. When his body was switched, he states that “He [the director] did not volunteer any information on the past history of my new body and I decided not to pry.” How does someone except a new body without a given explanation? I interpreted his use of the word “pry” as his way of not feeling entitled to knowing himself, whether old or new. His concerns weren’t primarily about his new body, the origin of his old body, the fact that his personality drifted with his new body, which in fact is a revelation to his theory “Dennett is wherever he thinks he is”, but on the revelation that his brain has been duplicated which is “adherent…largely for social reason.”
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