List of Figures .............................................. viii
Preface ........................................................ xi
Acknowledgements ............................................. xxvi
1 Mind and Self ................................................ 1
1.1 Can it be so easy? ...................................... 1
1.2 Psychological continuity ................................ 6
1.3 First doubts ........................................... 11
1.4 Some varieties of virtual life ......................... 14
1.5 Strands untangled ...................................... 21
2 Phenomenal Unity ............................................ 28
2.1 Experience ............................................. 28
2.2 Phenomenal space ....................................... 34
2.3 Self and awareness ..................................... 39
2.4 A superfluous self ..................................... 42
2.5 Simplicity and unity ................................... 46
3 Phenomenal Continuity ....................................... 51
3.1 A constraint ........................................... 51
3.2 Memory ................................................. 53
3.3 Chunks, apprehensions and representations .............. 56
3.4 Overlap and flow ....................................... 63
3.5 Phenomenal cuts ........................................ 68
3.6 The one experience view ................................ 71
3.7 Streamal unity ......................................... 73
4 Powers and Subjects ......................................... 75
4.1 Bridge building ........................................ 75
4.2 Experience-machines and beyond ......................... 81
4.3 Power structures ....................................... 88
4.4 The C-theory .......................................... 111
4.5 Powers in general ..................................... 114
4.6 Projection and production ............................. 131
5 Alternatives ............................................... 135
5.1 The self in experience ................................ 135
5.2 Bridges of resemblance ................................ 148
5.3 Fundamentalism ........................................ 151
5.4 Foster's modal bridge ................................. 153
5.5 Unger's material bridge ............................... 161
6 Minds and Mental Integration ............................... 170
6.1 From C-systems to minds ............................... 170
6.2 Aspects of mind ....................................... 171
6.3 Psycho-phenomenal integration ......................... 175
6.4 C-relations and P-relations ........................... 178
6.5 From a functional perspective ......................... 181
6.6 Non-phenomenal selves ................................. 188
6.7 What matters .......................................... 192
7 Embodiment ................................................. 201
7.1 A blurring ............................................ 201
7.2 Four grades of embodiment ............................. 203
7.3 Phenomenal embodiment ................................. 206
7.4 Effective embodiment .................................. 209
7.5 Boundary disputes ..................................... 215
7.6 Monist alternatives ................................... 224
7.7 Minimalism and possession ............................. 227
8 Simple Selves .............................................. 236
8.1 Simplicity and isolation .............................. 236
8.2 Isolation: strands of a defence ....................... 238
8.3 Reductio? ............................................. 245
8.4 Minimal subjects ...................................... 249
8.5 A minimal modification, and a moral ................... 251
8.6 Weak unity ............................................ 254
9 Holism ..................................................... 264
9.1 Unity and interdependence ............................. 264
9.2 Interdependent potentials ............................. 266
9.3 Phenomenal interdependence ............................ 272
9.4 Organization and interference ......................... 273
9.5 C-holism .............................................. 277
9.6 From C-holism to power holism ......................... 289
9.7 Power systematicity ................................... 300
9.8 Simplicity ............................................ 307
10 Modes of Incapacitation .................................... 311
10.1 Absoluteness .......................................... 311
10.2 Some varieties of incapacitation ...................... 313
10.3 Brains ................................................ 316
10.4 Cyclical subjects ..................................... 319
10.5 Congenial decomposition ............................... 321
10.6 Assessments ........................................... 325
10.7 Deviancy .............................................. 331
10.8 Teleportation revisited ............................... 336
10.9 From Egos to C-systems ................................ 338
11 Objections and Replies ..................................... 341
11.1 Ontological qualms .................................... 341
11.2 Issues of substance ................................... 342
11.3 Unity and independence ................................ 344
11.4 Menacing circularities ................................ 348
11.5 Ownership, isolation and holism ....................... 354
11.6 Power worlds .......................................... 359
12 The Topology of the Self ................................... 364
12.1 Fission ............................................... 364
12.2 Fission as fatal ...................................... 368
12.3 Can consciousness divide? ............................. 370
12.4 Overlap to the rescue? ................................ 373
12.5 Time travel and double existence ...................... 378
12.6 Personal and phenomenal time .......................... 381
12.7 Non-linearity ......................................... 385
12.8 Time and times ........................................ 389
12.9 Issues and objections ................................. 393
12.10 Fusion ............................................... 400
12.11 The many shapes of life .............................. 406
13 Appendix: Reductionism ..................................... 409
Bibliography .................................................. 418
Index ......................................................... 427
List of Figures
1.1 Attempting the impossible ................................. 26
3.1 Streamal structure: the pulse view ........................ 56
3.2 The momentary awareness + extended contents model ......... 60
3.3 Broad's version ........................................... 60
3.4 The representational conception ........................... 62
3.5 The overlap model (in schematic form) ..................... 65
3.6 A more realistic depiction of die overlap model:
incorporating phenomenal flow and more densley packed
specious presents ......................................... 67
3.7 Phenomenal connections unconfined (on die left) and
confined (on die right) ................................... 70
3.8 Three brief stream-phases, revealing (in a partial way)
the pervasive character of the co-consciousness
relationship .............................................. 74
4.1 A collection of experience-machines with a distinctive
feature: the ability to contribute to unified streams
of consciousness .......................................... 83
4.2 Indirect streamal relatedness ............................. 85
4.3 Both active and dormant powers can be DPCd- and IPCo-
related. The dotted figures in the upper level
represent the experiences which would have been
produced if the powers shown on the lower level had
been active rather than dormant ........................... 92
4.4 Not all DPCrj-related powers are succession-related ....... 94
4.5 The threads of a life: a simple way of defining the
conditions under which persisting powers are
consubjective ............................................. 98
4.6 Opposed powers can be consubjective by virtue of
belonging to a chain of synchronically DPC-related
powers (as shown on die left), or by virtue of being
able to produce experiences that are diachronically
co-conscious (as shown on the right) ..................... 105
4.7 A network of IPCs-related powers ......................... 108
4.8 Maggot's post-accident C-system: several DPCs-links
have been severed ........................................ 109
4.9 A single C-system can possess different depths of
synchronic integration ................................... 110
6.1 A mind of the familiar kind: a phenomenal core fully
integrated into a psychological system ................... 178
6.2 A novel form of fission: mind-machines split a normal
subject into phenomenal and non-phenomenal parts ......... 191
8.1 If partial unity is possible, so too are peculiar
experiential structures .................................. 255
8.2 (a) MUd disunity ......................................... 256
8.2 (b) Extreme disassociation ............................... 256
8.3 The consequences of co-consciousness: each part of
the phenomenal expanse is phenomenally connected to
every other part ......................................... 261
9.1 A simple total experience ................................ 272
9.2 Two complete but different visual fields ................. 274
9.3 The rotating disk illusion ............................... 276
9.4 Kanisza's triangle ....................................... 277
9.5 Kanisza's triangle—minimalist version .................... 277
9.6 A C-system with less than maximal synchronic
integration .............................................. 294
9.7 A pattern of experiences ................................. 303
9.8 A pattern in experiences ................................. 303
9.9 A visual field with a hole: region r2 is blind ........... 304
9.10 Differently holed: region r3 is blind .................... 304
9.11 A taxonomy of interdependencies .......................... 308
12.1 A branching stream of consciousness ...................... 364
12.2 A radically asymmetrical bifurcation ..................... 366
12.3 Fission construed as potential overlap ................... 375
12.4 A branching in phenomenal time. Phases not linked by
horizontal arrows are non-simultaneous ................... 386
12.5 Non-linear lives can come in many forms .................. 407
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