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REVIEW FROM LAST CLASS
Rene Descartes:
• I have found one certain truth!
• “I think, therefore I am.”
• Who/what/where is this “I?
• Specifically, what makes me me over time.
• (Personal Identity)
PERSONAL IDENTITY
• If I asked you if you were here last class, (and you believed you were)…
what reason would you have for saying yes?
• Haven’t you changed since the last time “you” were here? Wouldn’t that mean you weren’t here?
• Body is not the same.
• Memories are not the same.
• Psychology is not the same.
GROUP DISCUSSION
• May sound like a silly issue, but review the “Food for Thought” on page 106 concerning Stanley “Tookie” Williams.
• 1979 person was an angry, violent gang member who murdered 4 innocent people.
• 2005 person was a peaceful, older man, who wrote children’s books against gang violence, inspiring many youths.
• Question: Was Tookie in 2005 enough of the same person as the1979 Tookie to justify his execution? Or, did the state execute an innocent man in 2005? Explain your answer.
• In groups, discuss your answers, and summarize them on one piece of paper.
PERSONAL IDENTITY:
OVER TIME
5 Responses
1. Body Theory
2. Memory Theory
3. Psychological Continuity
4. Illusion Theory
5. Ego Theory
6. Soul Theory
PERSONAL IDENTITY:
OVER TIME
1. Body Theory
A person at one time is the very same person as a person at a later time if and only if they have the very same living material body.
• Most intuitive theory
• Most compatible with common sense.
• That’s how people know me. Finger prints, DNA.
• That’s how I know myself when I look in photos.
PERSONAL IDENTITY:
OVER TIME
Issues to think about:
• If a person suffers severe brain damage (left in vegetative state)?
• If a person has complete amnesia?
• Body characteristics: weight, height, color?
• Are all body parts critical? Which ones are?
• What % of the body?
PERSONAL IDENTITY:
OVER TIME
But what would you say about this example (pg 114)?
• Jenny the 35 year old mother of Jacob has a serious car accident and is seriously injured. In order to keep her alive doctors have to remove her uninjured brain from her skull and transplant it into the body of a 25 year old African American woman recently dead from a brain tumor. The operation is a success.
• In this situation would you tell Jacob his mother was still alive? What does your intuition say?
PERSONAL IDENTITY:
OVER TIME
Jacob’s mother. Jacob’s mother?
PERSONAL IDENTITY:
OVER TIME
Jacob’s mother. Jacob’s mother?
PERSONAL IDENTITY:
OVER TIME
Body Theory
Can you still make an argument for your body as the critical component of your personal identity while
taking into account all these questions?
PERSONAL IDENTITY:
OVER TIME
Imagine waking up, looking in the mirror, and seeing “you” in a different body. – Would it still be you?
Or would you be tempted to “kill” the intruder?
Then the body is not a necessary condition for personal identity.
What would make you believe you were you still?
PERSONAL IDENTITY:
OVER TIME
2. Memory Theory
A person at one time is the very same person as a person at a later time if and only if the person at the later time remembers experiences of the person at the earlier time.
PERSONAL IDENTITY:
OVER TIME
Memory Theory
Reasoning:
• Example # 1- School Reunion.
• Example # 2 – The wealthy option.
PERSONAL IDENTITY:
OVER TIME
Issues to think about:
• Visiting an Alzheimer’s patient: are you visiting the same person?
• Amnesia: so what’s mine?
• What percentage?
• False memories? Who am I then?
• 2 year old me vs. me now.
PERSONAL IDENTITY:
OVER TIME
3. Psychological Continuity Theory
A person at one time is the very same person as a person at a later time if and only if the person at the later time is psychologically continuous with the person at the earlier time.
Experiences X.
Has memory of X. (direct)
Experiences Y.
Has memory of Y.
No direct memory of X.
(indirect)
Stage A (1970) Stage B (1980) Stage C (2013)
PERSONAL IDENTITY:
OVER TIME
Experiences X.
Has memory of X.
Experiences Y.
Has memory of Y.
No direct memory of X.
Stage A (1970) Stage B (1980) Stage C (2013)
Psychological Continuity: There is a chain of person-stages connected by episodic memory.
Since A, B, and C are psychologically continuous with each other, they are all person-stages of the very same person.
PERSONAL IDENTITY:
OVER TIME
Psychological Continuity & Transporter Philosophy
“Beam me up Scotty!”
Transporter:
A teleportation device that turns in object into an energy pattern then beams it to a target where it is
reconverted into matter.
Same matter, same memories, just sent across space faster than a plane.
PERSONAL IDENTITY:
OVER TIME
PERSONAL IDENTITY:
OVER TIME
Psychological Continuity & Replicator PhilosophyWhat if instead of a transporter, this was actually a replicator?
Replicator:Instead of turning you into energy and beaming you down, it copied your molecular make-up, and then reconstructed you in your new location.
Questions:• Would you do it?
• If you had been commuting this way for years, what would you think about who you are?
• What’s the difference? “You” wouldn’t even notice.
PERSONAL IDENTITY:
OVER TIME
• Issues with psychological continuity.
PERSONAL IDENTITY:
OVER TIME
In the Transporter
Person-stages:
Experience x
Memory of xExperience y
Spock t
Shmock t+1on the planet
Shmock is psychologically continuouswith Spock, so they are the very sameperson: (Spock = Shmock)
PERSONAL IDENTITY:
OVER TIME
In the Transporter
Person-stages:
Experience x
Memory of xExperience y
Spock t
Shlock t+1
on the planet
Shlock is psychologically continuouswith Spock, so they are the very sameperson: (Spock = Shlock)
PERSONAL IDENTITY:
OVER TIME
Person-stages:Memory of xExperience y
Memory of xExperience y
Shmock t+1
Shlock t+1
Shmock and Shlock arequalitatively identical,but since they havedifferent bodies they are not numerically identical: (Shmock ≠≠≠≠ Shlock)
PERSONAL IDENTITY:
OVER TIME
In the Transporter
Person-stages:
Experience x
Memory of xExperience y
Memory of xExperience y
Spock t
Shmock t+1
Shlock t+1
PERSONAL IDENTITY:
OVER TIME
So we have:
• Spock = Shlock
• Spock = Shmock
• By transitivity of identity: Shlock = Shmock
• But, Shlock ≠ Shmock
• Contradiction!
PERSONAL IDENTITY:
OVER TIME
• Fix Contradiction?
• One person cannot become/be identical with two (different) people.
• Add a further condition to the Psychological Continuity Theory…
PERSONAL IDENTITY:
OVER TIME
Psychological Continuity Theory:
• A person at one time is the very same person as a person at a later time if and only if there is one and only one person at the later time who is psychologically continuous with the person at the earlier time.
Too ad hoc?
PERSONAL IDENTITY:
UNITY?
More “realistic” - Split Brain Patients (Basics)
PERSONAL IDENTITY:
UNITY?
Split Brain Patients – VS Ramachandran (Neuroscientist, UCSD)Does Two halves = two parts of you?
Or does two halves = two people?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFJPtVRlI64
• Trained right hemisphere to communicate through pointing (yes, no, I don’t know)
• Asked the right hemisphere specific questions.• Are you at De Anza? On the moon? Are
you asleep?• Do you believe in God?
• Pointed Yes.• Asked the left hemisphere same questions.
• Pointed no.• Two different people? • Will he go to heaven? Or only the right hemi?
PERSONAL IDENTITY:
UNITY?
The Girl with Half Her Brain (0:00-3:00)
PERSONAL IDENTITY:
UNITY?
The Girl with Half Her Brain
• If you believed that two brains = two sides of one person, is Cameron still Cameron after the operation?
• Or, did her parents “kill” the old Cameron (t) in order to have a “better” Cameron (t+1)?
• If you had half of your brain destroyed, and you were left with only one half, would “you” still be alive?
• What’s the answer according to the psychological continuity theory?
PERSONAL IDENTITY:
UNITY?
Uh oh.
What if your other hemisphere wasn’t destroyed?
Which one is you?
PERSONAL IDENTITY:
UNITY?
Derek Parfit (1942 - )
British Philosopher
In groups explain why he thinks the following three answers don’t
make sense.
1. I am going to be both people.
2. I am going to be one of them.
3. I am going to be neither of them.
PERSONAL IDENTITY:
UNITY?
Derek Parfit (1942 - )
British Philosopher
Three possible solutions:
1. I am going to be both people.
But this leads to a contradiction. Why?
Each person is distinct, and different. So you can’t be both at the same time.
PERSONAL IDENTITY:
UNITY?
Derek Parfit (1942 - )
British Philosopher
Three possible solutions:
2. I am going to be just one of them.
But this makes no sense. Why?
They both have the same type of relationship to the original me.
PERSONAL IDENTITY:
UNITY?
Derek Parfit (1942 - )
British Philosopher
Three possible solutions:
3. I don’t exist in either. I am no longer around.
But this is grossly misleading. Why?
PERSONAL IDENTITY:
UNITY?
Back to Cameron
Where is she?
One-Two Case Now she’s gone?
One-One CaseIntuition says she is
still here.
PERSONAL IDENTITY:
UNITY?
• Problem #1 is created because of the transitivity of identity--you can’t become two different people.
• Problem #2 is created because both of equal claim to being the original person.
• Problem #3: It seems silly to think you’ve gone out of existence by virtue of having 2 later person-stages that have equalclaim to being psychologically continuous with the earlier stage.
• Either way: would it be as bad as dying?
PERSONAL IDENTITY:
UNITY?
Langauge
Maybe we just need to
change our language.
Identity doesn’t exist: Not “me”
anymore.But just as good as
survival.
Identity still exists:I am still me:
PERSONAL IDENTITY:
UNITY?
Derek Parfit (1942 - )
British Philosopher
Split Brain Dilemma Summary
1. I am going to be both people.
2. I am going to be one of them.
3. I am going to be neither of them.
HOW TO RESPOND TO
PHILOSOPHICAL QUESTIONS
• Be sure to answer the question directly.
• Be sure to always have justifications all your claims.
• Avoid all statements of beliefs or opinion without justification.
• Use examples to illustrate your point or to demonstrate your understanding of the material.
• Be sure to demonstrate how well you understand the material!!!
