Persons, Selves, Souls, and Loops

John and Ken begin by creating a sense of puzzlement about what it means to be a person and have a self. Ken says that “person” doesn’t mean “human”. John agrees, giving the example of Donald Duck. They discuss the idea that being a person involves having self-knowledge.

The guest, Douglas Hofstadter, talks about the puzzling fact that we think of the brain operating according to the fundamental laws of physics, but such explanations seem incompatible with our every day explanations of the world in terms of personalities, senses of humor, etc.
 
John asks how real is the self. Hofstadter says that it is a very very useful fiction, a necessary short cut. He points out that even talk of hurricanes does not take place in terms of the most basic laws of physics, but still we think of hurricanes as being real. He says that selves are “abstract patterns” that exist at the same level of reality as hurricanes.

• Roving Philosophical Report (seek to 5:14): Polly Stryker speaks with Psychiatrist Sophia Vinogradov of the University of California San Francisco, who says that our sense of self is build up over the years from memories and various associations. It feels like the same self exists over time even though our molecular constitution changes. Dr. Vinogradov also discusses split-brain experiments, in which two people seem to be housed in one body.
   
• Conundrum: John in Oakland, CA asks what, of any, are the obligations of individuals who are themselves dying.