Using VR Technologies to Investigate the Flexibility of Human Self-Conception
Adrian Alsmith, Matthew R. Longo · Bloomsbury Academic eBooks · 2019
This chapter will focus on the claim that our self-conception is flexible, such that our thoughts about ourselves do not ultimately determine what kind of thing we are. We will review virtual reality research that seems promising as a means of investigating our self-conception. But we will raise certain key methodological issues with this research in so far as it might serve to demonstrate flexibility. Specifically, these issues concern (1) the possibility that any flexibility demonstrated in the use of the self-concept might simply reflect the flexibility of the imagination; (2) the fact that when we think about our bodies as ourselves, we do not necessarily identify with the body simpliciter, rather our thinking is structured around particular parts.