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The New Yorker |
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How to Be Good: A moral philosopher breaks down the self
You are in a terrible accident. Your body is fatally injured, as are the brains of your two identical-triplet brothers. Your brain is divided into two halves, and into each brother's body one half is successfully transplanted. After the surgery, each of the two resulting people believes himself to be you, seems to remember living your life, and has your character. (This is not as unlikely as it sounds: already, living brains have been surgically divided, resulting in two separate streams of consciousness.) What has happened? Have you died, or have you survived? And if you have survived who are you? Are you one of these people? Both? Or neither? What if one of the transplants fails, and only one person with half your brain survives? That seems quite different—but the death of one person could hardly make a difference to the identity of another. More » -
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The New Yorker Profiles The Dalai Lama
The current issue of The New Yorker features a lengthy profile of the Dalai Lama entitled "The Next Incarnation," written by Evan Osnos. After listening to a podcast with Osnos in which he talks about the piece and what it was like to meet the Dalai Lama, I had to go out and find a copy of the magazine so that I could read it (the online article is available only to subscribers). It's a solid profile overall and it concisely describes the Dalai Lama's current relationship with China. Osnos also does a good job of painting a picture of what Tibet looks like today. More »
