In the article Where am I, Dennett is described as a person who is recruited by the Pentagon to work for NASA. The Pentagon needs Dennett to retrieve a missile underground. Since the missile is highly radioactive, the Pentagon requires Dennett to leave his brain behind. Dennett is operated on and has his brain removed. His brain is placed in a vat. After waking up, Dennett cannot recognize where he is, which makes him pop the question, “Where am I?” Dennett has radio links connected to his body after the operation. Dennett thinks of this question philosophically, which is a difficult question since his body and brains are not together.
One proof that Yorick, Hamlet, Hubert or Fortinbras are Dennett is that after getting confused about his whereabouts, he decided to give his body and brains name. Dennett did this to make things remain clear to him. He names his brainless body Hamlet and bodiless brain Yorick. Dennett knows where Yorick and Hamlet are, in and outside the vat respectively. The main question to him is where the real Dennett is. According to him, there are three possibilities. The first possibility is that Dennett will go wherever Hamlet goes. The second possibility is that Dennett will go wherever Yorick will go. A third possibility is that Dennett will be wherever he assumes he is.
Another proof is that after the operation, Dennett is given a new body, which he names Fortinbras. The new body feels like the old self of him though he looks different. Dennett goes back to where Yorick is, but finds out that Yorick does not have control over his new body anymore. Scientists have programmed a setting that matches Yorick’s outputs and inputs, which makes it hard for Dennett to note the difference. His new brain, which he names Hubert, controls his new body.
There is a switch that makes it possible for Dennett to toggle how different bodies are controlled. The switch allows Dennett to have Yorick control Fortinbras and Hubert control Fortinbras. The main question is, what would happen if one was to take Dennett’s idle brain and use in another body? Since there would be two people, which one would be Dennett? What if Yorick was disconnected from Fortinbras by the technicians? These questions make Dennett have the lab locked up, and he carry the master switch that would never let him know which brain was controlling his body between Hubert and Yorick. When Dennett flips the switch in the end, he finds out that Yorick or Hubert, his other brain, were not in control any longer and that he was Fortinbras slave.
The personal identity theory that should be used in Dennett’s case is the Psychological Continuity Theory, which is defined by Locke and Descartes. According to Descartes, the same “I” doubts almost everything, affirms one thing is true and at the same time denying everything else, desire to get more knowledge, understands some things, is aware of many happenings and imagines many things (Schechtman 65). In using the pronoun “I”, Descartes refers to the mental substance, which is the mind. Descartes says that, I am, and I exist will remain so as long as I think. The personal identity theory should be considered in Dennett’s case because according to the article, Dennett present nature is defined by the brain controlling his body. Dennett has four personalities, which are all defined and controlled by his brain.
Works Cited
Schechtman, Marya. The Constitution of Selves. Ithaca [u.a.: Cornell Univ. Press, 2007. Print.
