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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