Thank you Elisha for your question the other night, here is a summary of my response.

A human being cannot function to ‘full capacity’ with the corpus callosum severed, let alone an entire hemisphere removed. This said, more than 60 epileptic children have undergone an operation formerly known as a hemispherectomy, and survived. So depending on your definition of ‘function’ the answer could be both yes and no.

From your initial question, it seems apparent that your understanding of function connotes an indifference in the individual. This would not be the case, as found by Michael Gazzaniga and Roger Sperry. Their studies demonstrated that a human being definitely can function with only half a brain, but the functionality would be limited in both cognitive response and relative action.

In summary, a human cannot function to full capacity with only one hemisphere of the brain, but could live with relative difficulties.

Related posts:

  1. If you expect the unexpected, doesn’t that make the unexpected expected and the expected unexpected? Just because you anticipate the unexpected doesn’t necessarily mean that you won’t be surprised when it occurs. To expect an event which is still unexpected connotes the element of surprise and an element lacking in comprehension. Example: I may take...
  2. Roger Scruton Quotes In 1970s Britain, conservative philosophy was the preoccupation of a few half-mad recluses. The conservative response to modernity is to embrace it, but to embrace it critically, in full consciousness that human achievements are rare and precarious, that we have...
  3. Why do philosophers make simple questions appear obscure, complicated and confusing? Expressing oneself astutely, stalwartly and unmistakably is an awkward challenge. This is why simple questions can often appear obscure, complicated and confusing, which is why philosophers are often beleaguered and ridiculed as crass, rather than appreciated, as they indeed sometimes...