Selves outside the world

Mainstream theories in the ontology of the person, though very different from each other in many respects, all share the idea that subjects of experience are parts of the spatio-temporal world, just as bodies, brains and atoms are, and just as souls – if they exist – are supposed to be. In this paper, on the contrary, we explore the idea that persons do not really belong to the world they experience, a thesis that, while quite unpopular today, has a venerable philosophical pedigree and that, we suggest, should not be overlooked by contemporary metaphysicians.