Study Questions for Dennett’s “Where Am I”

and Sanford’s “Where Was I”

 

 

Questions for Dennett’s “Where Am I?”

  1. What is Dennett’s mission in the story?
  2. What operation does he go through?
  3. What does the switch do?
  4. What does Dennett think when he looks at his brain?
  5. What philosophical problem does arise from this thought?
  6. What do the names “Dennett,” “Yorick,” “Hamlet,” (and later) “Fortinbras,” and “Hubert” refer to?
  7. What is suspicious about the claim that “Where Hamlet goes, there goes Dennett”?
  8. What is suspicious about the claim that “Where Yorick goes, there goes Dennett”?
  9. What is suspicious about the claim that “Dennett is wherever he thinks he is”?
  10. How does the idea of “point of view” contribute to Dennett’s problem?
  11. What happened to Dennett during his mission?
  12. What philosophical “revelation” did occur to him as a result of it?
  13. What practical problem does he encounter while he has his revelation?
  14. What is the relationship between Yorick and Fortinbras?
  15. Between Yorick and Hubert?
  16. Between Hubert and Fortinbras?
  17. What is the role of the new switch?
  18. How does the story end?

 

Questions for Sanford’s “Where Was I?”

  1. What is Sanford’s mission in the story?
  2. Why is he hoped to be a better agent for the mission than Dennett was?
  3. What do the names “Sanford,” “David,” and “Hawley” refer to?
  4. What philosophical problems does Sanford encounter?
  5. What is the role of the other robots?
  6. What is the conclusion of Sanford’s story?

 

 

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