Introduction to

Personal Identity
Phi l os opher i n Ac t i on: Davi d Chal mer s
on Cons c i ous ness
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NK1Yo6VbRoo
Personal Identity
Who am I?
Under what possible
circumstances is a person
existing at one time
identical with a person
existing at another time?
What happens to me if
Im copied? What would
be copied?
What about people who
have their brains
injured?

The Problems of Personal
Identity

What am I?
What is a
person?
What is a
body and
what is a soul
or mind?

Personal Identity & the Afterlife
It can comfort us to think that our loved
ones live on somehow after death
But what would that really entail?
What is a soul?
Immaterial?
Eternal (Plato
thought it wasnt
though actually!)?
Rational aspect,
moral aspect of
humans?
Above self-
interested
desires?
Our ultimate
purpose is in our
soul (to know
God- Aquinas)?
Reincarnation
You are reborn into a
new body after
death
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dULx-
YKUyCM&feature=fvwrel
PROBLEM:
- Reincarnations dont
seem to be the same
person? Are they?
What is reincarnated? Hindu belief
Oldest religious
tradition still practiced
(5,000 years and
going!)
Atman: non-self,
illusion, true self is no-
self!
Seeking to escape
rebirth through
enlightenment
Soul which is reborn is
ultimate self, not a
part of the illusory I ?
Self is not a desiring
thing, but a liberated
spirit
Resurrection
You (and your body)
come back to life after
you die
PROBLEM:
-Need an earth-like place to
go to?
-If were recreated exactly
the same, well just die
again? What age body will
we get?
-Different views of what is
resurrected (Spiritual body?
Actually body?)

There shall certainly be a resurrection of both
the 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 is
raised 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
Soul Liberation
When we die, our soul leaves our body
to live on somewhere else
PROBLEMS:
What, exactly, is a soul?
If the soul is just the mental, then how can
it live on?
Is my soul (without my
body) human enough to
be me?
-Where does it go?
C
y
b
o
r
g
s
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
Personal Identity & Brain Damage
Brain damage and
amnesia could
drastically change what
a person is like
But, would it change
who they are?
Phineas Gage
http://www.youtube.co
m/watch?v=MvpIRN9D4
D4&feature=plcp
Frontal lobe damage
Lobotomies

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 intimately
conscious of anything but a
particular perception; man is a
bundle or collection of different
perceptions which succeed one
another with an inconceivable
rapidity and are in perpetual
flux and movement (but what
unifies these experiences?)
Kant and I
the self or the person exists in three
respects
logical self: The self-aware self, the I
think, essentially what gives unity to
the manifold of representations
apprehended self: the self conscious of
itself as an object, the self that
apprehends being a thinking I
practical self: moral self-consciousness,
the feeling self, the dignity
No-Self Theory
the self cannot be reduced
to a bundle because the
concept of a self is
incompatible with the
idea of a bundle. This is
because the idea of a
bundle implies the notion
of bodily or psychological
relations that do not in
fact exist.
There is no self- nothing to
collect experiences and
memory is unreliable
Buddhism: "I have no self"
is a faulty claim! Koan
indeed!
Relational Self
The self is created
by being in the
world, through
social interactions
I am that which is
not the other
Blank slate Self
Self is a product of a
persons
environment
Hegel


Brain Theory
In essence, each person
is their unique living
brain a materialist
explanation of self
Consciousness/conscious
experience is the same
thing as particular brain
states
What essentially makes
me me through time is
that I have the very
same brain as the mes
in the past
The Problem of Time
When it is argued that
the person/self is what
memory continues or
what consciousness
continues, presupposes
linear time?
But is time objective or
subjective (or both,
Augustine), real or
mentally constructed
(Kant)
Relative Time and
Space?

The Problem of Memory
Memory is faulty
If I forget things, am I not the same person?
Memento watch in class
Thought Experiments
A thought experiment
considers some hypothesis,
theory for the purpose of
thinking through its
consequences. Given the
structure of the experiment,
it may or may not be
possible to actually perform
it, and, in the case that it is
possible for it to be
performed, there need be no
intention of any kind to
actually perform the
experiment in question. The
common goal of a thought
experiment is to explore the
potential consequences of
the principle in question.
The Tele-
Transporter Case
You have been tele-
transporting to work
(on a very distant
planet) for X days/
years
You are at work when
you are informed that
the tele-transporter
really 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)?
Closest Continuer Theory (CCT)
What essentially makes me me
through 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 will
mean that the cc is not numerically
identical with the original
The Ship of Theseus
A repaired ship is the Closest
Continuous of the original:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQJB7DZyqIE
Until the old parts are all put together
in ship B
Modified Brain Transplant Case
Youre dying of a heart
attack, but your brain
is transplanted into a
healthy clone of your
body
The old body dies as
the new one comes to
life
Who is now the real
you?
Brain Splitting
Case
You have of your
brain transplanted
into a clone of
yourself
Both you and the
clone live on with full
psychological
continuity
Are you and the clone
a different person?
Derek Parfit
interview:
https://www.youtube.
com/watch?v=34N3pb
ysIzQ
Tele-transporter Case Revisited
Youve been tele-transporting to work (on a very
distant planet) for 3 years
Nozick: tele-transporting probably destroys you
eventually over time (Person B 3 years from now is
probably not close enough to Person A now to be
numerically identical to them)
Nozicks Final Claims
There are no fixed
facts to construct
dimensions of
closeness for people
because :

-The essential properties of unique individuals will
vary through time and across individuals
-And, the essential properties of unique individuals
are partially determined by our own
conceptions of what it means to be ourselves