Action, the unity of consciousness, and vehicle externalism1

We have an intuitive, pretheoretical idea that two conscious states must either be together, co-conscious, or separate, not co-conscious. But what is it for simultaneous conscious states to be united or separate? Can we give an account of the unity of consciousness that will apply not just to easy cases like the example I just gave, but also to various hard cases described by neuropsychologists? I’m going to focus here on just one aspect of this question: is it necessary for consciousness to be fully unified, or is it possible for consciousness to be only partially unified? Keep in mind that my topic is not personal identity over time, but the unity of consciousness at a time.

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