The Strange Island of Two-headed Existence

Recently, I was investigating some personal identity issues about more than one mind being exhibited within a single brain. Eventually one does internet searches and many strange things occur when search terms on Google are given wide scope.

As a rule, I collect pictures to use on powerpoints, and here is a collection of pictures that I've been casually throwing into a picture file. I'll admit that just how one might use such pictures is a mystery, but the collection is growing big enough that perhaps I should place a few out there on the web as just one more weird pit-stop in cyberspace.


















As one can clearly see, a host of animals, including humans, can be born with nervous systems that can support two fully functional brains. There are also humans that are born with shared torsos, which is a slightly different matter:

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The idea of what counts as "my" body is brought into question under such circumstances. The ambiguity, on my view, stems from what counts as a self. Since there is no clear (or easy) criterion for determining a self, determining the reference for a self's body is equally ambiguous.