I find amnesia and impaired mental states more interesting cases than anaesthesia from a personal identity point of view, although I do recall one instance when they overlapped: I was in the recovery room, and wondering how long I had been out. I lifted my head up to look at the clock on the other side of the room, which read 1:06 pm. I then (slightly fuzzily) tried to remember when I went under and how many minutes ago that was, and then double checked the clock because clearly my mental arithmetic wasn’t reliable, and it said 1:17 pm!
I had no memory of anything like 11 minutes having passed—it felt like maybe 10 seconds, and my head was still up so I don’t think I passed out. I asked the nurse whether the clock was working, and she told me that yes it was correct, like last time I asked. Err what? Last time? I put my head back down and thought about that for a bit and went to sleep. When I woke (just a few minutes later) I could much more easily subtract the times, but still couldn’t remember more than a few seconds between the times I looked at the clock, nor asking about the clock the first time.
From a personal identity point of view, what sort of consciousness existed during those missing 11 minutes? Is it part of “me” now? Is there a fact of the matter or is it simply a point of view?
I find amnesia and impaired mental states more interesting cases than anaesthesia from a personal identity point of view, although I do recall one instance when they overlapped: I was in the recovery room, and wondering how long I had been out. I lifted my head up to look at the clock on the other side of the room, which read 1:06 pm. I then (slightly fuzzily) tried to remember when I went under and how many minutes ago that was, and then double checked the clock because clearly my mental arithmetic wasn’t reliable, and it said 1:17 pm!
I had no memory of anything like 11 minutes having passed—it felt like maybe 10 seconds, and my head was still up so I don’t think I passed out. I asked the nurse whether the clock was working, and she told me that yes it was correct, like last time I asked. Err what? Last time? I put my head back down and thought about that for a bit and went to sleep. When I woke (just a few minutes later) I could much more easily subtract the times, but still couldn’t remember more than a few seconds between the times I looked at the clock, nor asking about the clock the first time.
From a personal identity point of view, what sort of consciousness existed during those missing 11 minutes? Is it part of “me” now? Is there a fact of the matter or is it simply a point of view?