Me, myself, and I

Self I was once a baby. With luck, I’ll become old. If I make it to 80, it will be

difficult to run a mile in under eight minutes.

The material in my body changes about every seven years.

If my foot or hand gets amputated, I’d have to cope with the loss.

Self?

I could have been born at a different time and place.

I might survive the death of my body and live for a time as a spirit.

I might have been born with a different body.

I might have been born with a better or worse mind.

I might have been Plato in a past life.

I may come back as a dog or a monkey in my next life.

Blackburn’s Lists

Personal Identity: Some distinctions What is a self and what makes a self one self

over time? Numerical vs qualitative identity Kurt in 1978 is numerically but not qualitatively

identical to Kurt in 1998 (after his stroke). Types and tokens: My clone or replicant may be

the same type as myself but a different token.

Personal Identity: The Search for the Self Soul view: My soul is my self and it

endures indefinitely (with or without a body).

Somatic view: I am this body. Consciousness view: I am my memories

and present experiences.

Thomas Reid’s Brave Officer

Suppose a brave officer to have been flogged when a boy at school for robbing an orchard, to have taken a standard from the enemy during his first campaign, and to have been made a general in advanced life; suppose, also that, when he took the standard, he was conscious of his having been flogged at school, and that, when made a general, he was conscious of his haven taken the standard, but had absolutely lost consciousness of his flogging.

When I enter into myself I always stumble on some perception or other…. (David Hume)

Brain view: Where my brain goes, I go.

Illusion of identity: There is no enduring self. I am a succession of thoughts and impressions (a self-process).

The existence of a person, during any period, just consists in the existence of his brain and body, and the thinking of his thoughts, and the doing of his deeds, and the occurrence of many other physical and mental events. (D. Parfit)