The having objection to bundle theories of subjects of experience.

The self or subject of experiences is often regarded as a mysterious entity, prompting approaches that seek to deflate it, metaphysically speaking. One such approach is the bundle theory, the most well-known version of which holds that each subject is a bundle of experiences. This version of the bun...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Philosophical Quarterly Vol. 74; no. 4; pp. 1367 - 1376
Main Author: O'Conaill, Donnchadh
Format: Article
Published: Oxford University Press / USA Oct2024
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Online Access:View this record in EBSCOhost
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Summary:The self or subject of experiences is often regarded as a mysterious entity, prompting approaches that seek to deflate it, metaphysically speaking. One such approach is the bundle theory, the most well-known version of which holds that each subject is a bundle of experiences. This version of the bundle theory seems vulnerable to the having objection: since subjects have experiences, they cannot be identical with bundles of experiences. I shall argue that while the having objection is intuitively plausible, its dialectical force is limited since it does not work without substantial further metaphysical assumptions.