X-Message-Number: 10908
Subject: Re: The Soul
Date: Fri, 11 Dec 1998 21:12:13 -0500
From: "Perry E. Metzger" <>

> From: 

> I do believe in a soul.  We can remove all your extremties, even
> replace many of your organs and you will still be you.

> You are not your body.

True, I can cut off your leg and you are still you. However, if I cut
your brain up, you stop being you. The less I cut your brain up, the
less damage is caused to "you". I can cause minor damage by, say,
cutting your corpus collosum, or major damage by pithing
you. Strangely, damage in particular areas leads to particular kinds
of deficits.

True, you are not *most* of your body. It appears that whatever you
are, though, damaging your brain seems to damage "it", and in the ways
that one would expect if the brain was the thing that made you
"you". This leads to the inevitable conclusion that there is no soul,
because "you" seem to be the result of physical processes in your
brain.

Perry

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