5a) personal identity

8/12/2019 5a) Personal Identity

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Introduction to

Personal Identity

P h i l o s o p h e r i n A c t i o n : D a v i d C h a l m e r s

o n C o n s c i o u s n e s s http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NK1Yo6VbRoo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NK1Yo6VbRoohttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NK1Yo6VbRoohttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NK1Yo6VbRoohttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NK1Yo6VbRoohttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NK1Yo6VbRoo


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Personal Identity

Who am I? Under what possible

circumstances is a personexisting at one time

identical with a personexisting at another time?

What happens to meif

Im copied? What wouldbe copied?

What about people whohave their brains

injured?


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The Problems of Personal

Identity

What am I?

What is a

person? What is a

body and

what is a soulor mind?


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Personal Identity & the Afterlife

It can comfort us to think that our lovedones live on somehow after death

But what would that really entail?


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What is a soul? Immaterial?

Eternal (Plato

thought it wasntthough actually!)?

Rational aspect,moral aspect of

humans?

Above self-interested

desires? Our ultimate

purpose is in oursoul (to know

God- Aquinas)?


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Reincarnation

You are reborn into anew body afterdeath

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dULx-YKUyCM&feature=fvwrel

PROBLEM:

- Reincarnations dontseem to be the sameperson? Are they?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dULx-YKUyCM&feature=fvwrelhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dULx-YKUyCM&feature=fvwrelhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dULx-YKUyCM&feature=fvwrelhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dULx-YKUyCM&feature=fvwrelhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dULx-YKUyCM&feature=fvwrel


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What is reincarnated? Hindu belief

Oldest religioustradition still practiced(5,000 years andgoing!)

Atman: non-self,

illusion, true self is no-self! Seeking to escape

rebirth throughenlightenment

Soul which is reborn isultimate self, not apart of the illusory I ?Self is not a desiringthing, but a liberated

spirit


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Resurrection

You (and your body)come back to life afteryou die

PROBLEM:

-Need an earth-like place togo to?

-If were recreated exactlythe same, well just dieagain? What age body will

we get?

-Different views of what isresurrected (Spiritual body?Actually body?)

There shall certainly be a resurrection of boththe righteous and the wicked Acts 24:15

So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is

sown a perishable body, it is raised an

imperishable body; it is sown in dishonor, it israised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is

raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is

raised a spiritual body.1 Corinthians 15:42-

44


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Soul Liberation

When we die, our soul leaves our bodyto live on somewhere else

PROBLEMS:

What, exactly, is a soul?

If the soul is just the mental, then how canit live on?

Is my soul (without mybody) human enough to

be me?

-Where does it go?


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Cy

borgs Use technology to keep us alive, to

keep our loved ones alive?

PROBLEMS:

Will it ever work and how?

How will we know-what if we were

one? Would the cyborg be the same?

http://ww

w.youtube.com/watc

h?v=h3tE

oGnov6s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3tEoGnov6shttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3tEoGnov6shttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3tEoGnov6shttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3tEoGnov6shttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3tEoGnov6shttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3tEoGnov6shttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3tEoGnov6shttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3tEoGnov6shttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3tEoGnov6shttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3tEoGnov6s


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Personal Identity & Brain Damage

Brain damage andamnesia coulddrastically change whata person is like

But, would it changewho they are? Phineas Gage

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvpIRN9D4D4&feature=plcp

Frontal lobe damage Lobotomies
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvpIRN9D4D4&feature=plcphttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvpIRN9D4D4&feature=plcphttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvpIRN9D4D4&feature=plcphttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvpIRN9D4D4&feature=plcphttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvpIRN9D4D4&feature=plcphttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvpIRN9D4D4&feature=plcphttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvpIRN9D4D4&feature=plcphttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvpIRN9D4D4&feature=plcp


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The Elusive I

Locke: Consciousness/ Memory(active memory, not the soul)"same continued consciousness(Blank Slate Self)

Hume: The bundle theory of the

self: "we are never intimatelyconscious of anything but aparticular perception; man is abundle or collection of differentperceptions which succeed one

another with an inconceivablerapidity and are in perpetualflux and movement (but whatunifies these experiences?)


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Kant and I

the self or the person exists in threerespects

logical self: The self-aware self, the I

think, essentially what gives unity tothe manifold of representations

apprehended self: the self conscious of

itself as an object, the self thatapprehends being a thinking I

practical self: moral self-consciousness,

the feeling self, the dignity


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No-Self Theory

the self cannot be reducedto a bundle because theconcept of a self isincompatible with theidea of a bundle. This isbecause the idea of abundle implies the notionof bodily or psychologicalrelations that do not infact exist.

There is no self- nothing to

collect experiences andmemory is unreliable

Buddhism: "I have no self"is a faulty claim! Koanindeed!


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Relational Self

The self is createdby being in theworld, through

social interactions I am that which is

not the other

Blank slate Self

Self is a product of apersonsenvironment

Hegel


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Brain Theory

In essence, each personis their unique livingbraina materialistexplanation of self

Consciousness/consciousexperience is the samething as particular brainstates

What essentially makesme methrough time isthat I have the verysame brainas the mesin the past


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The Problem of Time

When it is argued that

the person/self is whatmemory continues orwhat consciousnesscontinues, presupposes

linear time?

But is time objective orsubjective (or both,

Augustine), real ormentally constructed(Kant)

Relative Time and

Space?


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The Problem of Memory

Memory is faulty If I forget things, am I not the same person?

Mementowatch in class


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Thought Experiments A thought experiment

considers some hypothesis,theory for the purpose ofthinking through itsconsequences. Given thestructure of the experiment,it may or may not bepossible to actually performit, and, in the case that it ispossible for it to beperformed, there need be nointention of any kind toactually perform theexperiment in question. Thecommon goal of a thoughtexperiment is to explore thepotential consequences ofthe principle in question.


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The Tele-

Transporter Case

You have been tele-transporting to work(on a very distant

planet) for X days/years

You are at work whenyou are informed thatthe tele-transporterreally works like a re-duplicator (it copies &

kills you) Do you get in and tele-

transport home? Why?Why not? Mistakes by

machine (doubles you)?


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Closest Continuer Theory (CCT)

What essentially makes me methrough time is that I am always the(one) closest continuer of the

previous me And that the closest continuer (CC) is

close enough I.e. too dramatic a change of an

essential property (even) in the cc willmean that the cc is not numericallyidentical with the original


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The Ship of Theseus

A repaired ship is the ClosestContinuous of the original:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQJB7DZyqIE

Until the old parts are all put together

in ship B
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQJB7DZyqIEhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQJB7DZyqIE


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Modified Brain Transplant Case

Youre dying of a heartattack, but your brainis transplanted into ahealthy clone of your

body

The old body dies asthe new one comes to

life Who is now the real

you?


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Brain Splitting

Case

You have of yourbrain transplantedinto a clone ofyourself

Both you and theclone live on with fullpsychological

continuity Are you and the clone

a different person? Derek Parfit

interview:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34N3pbysIzQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34N3pbysIzQhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34N3pbysIzQhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34N3pbysIzQhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34N3pbysIzQhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34N3pbysIzQhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34N3pbysIzQ


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Tele-transporter Case Revisited

Youve been tele-transporting to work (on a verydistant planet) for 3 years

Nozick: tele-transporting probably destroys youeventually over time(Person B 3 years from now is

probably not close enoughto Person A now to benumerically identical to them)


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NozicksFinal Claims

There are no fixedfacts to construct

dimensions ofcloseness for peoplebecause :

-The essential properties of unique individuals willvary through time and across individuals-And, the essential properties of unique individualsare partially determined by our ownconceptions of what it means to be ourselves

5a) personal identity

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