SocraticGadfly: Brain-conjoined Siamese twins: Two minds or one?

May 26, 2011

Brain-conjoined Siamese twins: Two minds or one?

A fascinating story about Krista and Tatiana Hogan, craniopagus siamese twins, connected at their heads, where their skulls merge under a mass of shaggy brown bangs.

As the story asks, do they have two minds or one? Judging by how one twin responds to sensory inputs the other receives, maybe we shouldn't quite say "one mind," but maybe "one and a half"?

Of course, if one believes in the existence of immaterial souls, Siamese twins like this pose a bit of a quandary, to say the least. I've not seen fractional souls ever proposed.

That said, my "one and a half minds" isn't meant to be taken literally. But, by showing minds can overlap in this way, it's meant to stir thought.

No comments: