La Machine humaine: Villiers' L'Eve future and the Problem of Personal Identity

The creation of a robot that is to be accepted as the replacement for a woman necessarily provokes a series of questions about what is essential for two beings to be identical and for the conditions of personhood. I will examine first, the ways the text undermines the concept of the self or subject at the same time as it purports to describe the creation of a self; and second, the problem of personal identity it raises, especially in the light of contemporary philosophy of mind. (CdDR)