display all the ideas for this combination of texts
1 idea
6144 | You hold a child in your arms, so it is not mental substance, or mental state, or software [Merricks] |
Full Idea: When you hold your child, you do exactly that - hold the child himself or herself - and not some stand-in. This implies that we are not two substances, and we are not mental states nor akin to software. | |
From: Trenton Merricks (Objects and Persons [2003], §4) | |
A reaction: And it is not just a brain, either. This is a nice simple example to support the sensible view that a person is a type of animal. Like all other physical objects that is a bit vague, so we should not be distracted by borderline cases like brain bisection. |