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Why There is No Us in Consciousness: You Are Simple, a Bodily Soul

  • Brandon Rickabaugh ORCID logo EMAIL logo
Published/Copyright: February 25, 2025

Abstract

You and I are conscious. But You-and-I, a pair of subjects, cannot be conscious. Why? Because subjects of consciousness cannot have parts but are mereologically simple. Although most contemporary philosophers do not take the thesis that we are simple seriously, David Barnett has proffered an argument in its defense that has faced numerous objections but is yet to be defeated, or so I will argue. In responding to these objections, I expand and develop important ontological and mereological theses that strengthen Barnett’s argument and others of its kind. I also argue that a significant body of empirical work supports Barnett’s argument against a recent objection. Lastly, I show how, although not made explicit by Barnett, his argument is plausibly a defense of the immaterial self or a bodily soul.


Corresponding author: Brandon Rickabaugh, Palm Beach Atlantic University, 901 S. FLAGER DR., West Palm Beach, FL, 33401-6505, USA, E-mail: 

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Received: 2022-11-16
Accepted: 2024-11-07
Published Online: 2025-02-25
Published in Print: 2025-04-28

© 2025 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

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