ABSTRACT
One of the few things that may be unique to Homo sapiens sapiens among all animals is our facility for creating abstract concepts, and one of the earliest abstract concepts was probably the idea that there are spirits in the human body, in animals and in things. This hypothesis of the abstract ontological unity and continuity of ‘bearness’, ‘mountainness’ or the human soul was a natural extension of human self-awareness, the illusion of a unity and continuity in self-identity (Dennett, 1991; Boyer, 2001). This attribution of an abstract ontology to things has its uses, as it allows us to make predictions about how creatures and things of a kind will behave (Dennett, 1987). The belief that others have an inner self similar to our inner self is the root of empathy. But these vitalist illusions can also trap us into positing identities that do not exist, of making inaccurate predictions and persisting with dysfunctional and limiting beliefs.
