-1

Isn’t ‘person’ with the same body and two personalities technically two people? For example, we call conjoined twins two people because they have two personalities.

Sandejo
  • 803
  • 1
  • 5
  • 10
user284747
  • 7
  • 1
  • 1
    I think it would be hard to argue that doctor Jekyll's body should not be put in jail (or at least commited to a psychiatric institution) because it was really mister Hyde who commited the crime. At least legally in most countries they would be considered as one single person. Now you got me curious as to what would happen legally if one of a pair of siamese twins were to murder someone – armand Dec 03 '21 at 07:33
  • @armand I’m sorry but I’m not interested in law. – user284747 Dec 03 '21 at 07:49
  • "we call siamese twins two people because they have two personalities": NO. They are two people because synthetically they are two bodies (not normal, but normal is almost impossible to define). But multiple personalities a) is subjective; b) does not impact the definition of the term _people_. – RodolfoAP Dec 03 '21 at 08:56
  • @RodolfoAP That’s really thoughtful – user284747 Dec 03 '21 at 10:07
  • 2
    We call Siamese twins two people because they have two separate *brains* (albeit sometimes linked). If we based it on something as vague as "personality" we'd have to count a new "person" every time one is in a different mood, which would not be very practical. Then again, when people change radically enough, or dissociative identity disorder is drastic enough it is often described as "like two different people". – Conifold Dec 03 '21 at 13:25
  • 1
    @user284747 "*Isn’t ‘person’ with the same body and two personalities **technically** two people?*" You would need to flesh out what you mean here by "technically" because the only techniques I know of that concern themselves with the issue are psychologists, courts of law and medical surgeons, and every one of them contradicts your statement here. Courts follow psychology in treating individuals with a multiple personality as one person with multiple personalities. Surgeons treat Siamese babies as two persons because each has a viable brain. So, "technically", what do you mean here? – Speakpigeon Dec 03 '21 at 17:52
  • Well, you *should* be interested in the law because it's one way to approach the problem. There is not one true definition of what a person is, just different approaches with different implications. – armand Dec 04 '21 at 01:27

2 Answers2

0

Not necessarily, because we would consider a person without a personality (let's say a comatous patient) still a person, not zero persons.

From this I conclude what we call "person" is often the living body. A dead body isn't a person, I'd say, it was a person when it was still alive.

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/person person (plural persons or (by suppletion) people)

  1. An individual; usually a human being. [from 13th c.] Each person is unique, both mentally and physically. [...]
  2. The physical body of a being seen as distinct from the mind, character, etc. [from 14th c.] [...]

Etymologically, "person" seems to come from mask, or what can be seen. This reinforces the idea of using it to refer to the body.

Meanin #1 would seem to see the two personalities as two people, whereas meaning #2 would see the one living body as one person.

In conclusion, in some contexts it may be useful to talk about the personalities as persons in the sense #1 of person. In other contexts you may want to talk about the person that is composed of the body and the two personalities, with the sense #2 of person.

kutschkem
  • 2,172
  • 10
  • 17
0

Depends on what you mean by "person", obviously. There is literature on personal identity, and you can read it. If one "alter" enters a coma (thanks kutschkem) the other will. A Siamese twin can die without, in principle, murdering the other.

For me this shows that myself a "person" isn't essentially composed of agency, but my ownmost, my death. That an alter can only metaphorically die, that there is no total and irreversible collapse of their world leaving a corpse to really perish, completely settles the question.

Dasein... does not simply perish