Our panel of 91 professional philosophers has responded to

43
 questions about 
Color
374
 questions about 
Logic
34
 questions about 
Music
51
 questions about 
War
282
 questions about 
Knowledge
110
 questions about 
Animals
36
 questions about 
Literature
105
 questions about 
Art
89
 questions about 
Law
23
 questions about 
History
39
 questions about 
Race
70
 questions about 
Truth
151
 questions about 
Existence
2
 questions about 
Culture
96
 questions about 
Time
75
 questions about 
Perception
221
 questions about 
Value
170
 questions about 
Freedom
24
 questions about 
Suicide
80
 questions about 
Death
218
 questions about 
Education
81
 questions about 
Identity
27
 questions about 
Gender
574
 questions about 
Philosophy
134
 questions about 
Love
68
 questions about 
Happiness
31
 questions about 
Space
4
 questions about 
Economics
32
 questions about 
Sport
1280
 questions about 
Ethics
75
 questions about 
Beauty
58
 questions about 
Abortion
124
 questions about 
Profession
392
 questions about 
Religion
287
 questions about 
Language
110
 questions about 
Biology
208
 questions about 
Science
154
 questions about 
Sex
2
 questions about 
Action
69
 questions about 
Business
77
 questions about 
Emotion
67
 questions about 
Feminism
5
 questions about 
Euthanasia
58
 questions about 
Punishment
88
 questions about 
Physics
117
 questions about 
Children
244
 questions about 
Justice
54
 questions about 
Medicine
284
 questions about 
Mind

Question of the Day

While there are some philosophers today, known as "animalists," who identify the human person as their whole body (brain and all). many more philosophers hold that personal identity is a function of brain continuity. On this view, if your brain were transplanted into a different body, you would then be re-embodied in that new body. The way you phrase your question is interesting as you refer to "the body by its name" and refer to "the brain's name." This is rare, as (to take my own case) few would think that "Charles" refers to my brain or my body. I believe most would think "Charles" refers to me as a subject, a substantial individual being who thinks, acts, has feelings, has a past, and so on. It is a further question about what is essential (in bodily terms) for me, Charles, to endure over time. Would I survive if half my brain was removed? There is a recent book on such questions, Are we bodies or souls? by Richard Swinburne. Swinburne argues that reflection on personal identity should lead us to believe that we are more than our brains (and more than our whole animal bodies). Whether you agree with him or not, I commend his methodology: we should begin with a certainty about our own substantial existence as persons who endure over time. After such a beginning, we can then go on to ask whether you and I are brains or our continuity rests on our brain's identity, and so on.