4 responses to personal identity
TRANSCRIPT
What is a human being?The Problem of Personal Identity
Do we always remain the same during our life?
There are 4 responses to this question
Illusion theory Body theory Soul theory Memory theory
Illusion theory of Personal Identity
According to the illusion theory, there is no self that persists through time. We change from one moment to the next and turn constantly in to a new person. To think that something in us remains the same is an illusion.
The case for Illusion Theory Human undergo continuous qualitative
change Our bodies are from one minute to the
next gaining and losing physical material Every 7 years our entire physical make
up has changed Empirical evidence points to the idea
there is no permanent or unchanging self
Personal identity is an illusion
David Hume (1711-1776)
In The Treatise on Human Nature argues we cannot observe any permanent self
‘…the mind is s a kind of theatre, where several perceptions successively make appearance; pass, re-pass, glide away, and mingle in a variety of postures and situations’
This is known as Hume’s ‘Bundle Theory’
Heraclitus (535-475BCE)
First to state that everything in the universe (including ourselves) undergoes permanent change
Put forward the famous idea….’It is not possible to step into the same river twice….it scatters and again comes together, and approaches and recedes’
It is tempting to think of our selves in terms of a river
William James (1842-1910)
Agrees with the principle of our selves as a constantly changing river
He writes ‘Our consciousness is in constant change…consciousness flows. A river or stream is the metaphor by which it is most naturally described’
Therefore
If our bodies undergo permanent change as well as our minds it seems plausible to conclude that the idea of a permanent self that persists through time is indeed a convenient illusion
Buddhist teachings support this idea Belief in a permanent self is the main
source of suffering They believe in Anicca – The belief that
nothing stays the same Therefore Anatta – The belief that
there is no self. Self is an illusion Christmas Humphreys former
president of the Buddhist society ‘…All that exists, from a ole to a mountain, from a thought to an empire, passes through the same cycle of existence ie birth, growth, decay and death…the law of change applies equally to the ‘soul’. There is no principle in an individual which is immortal and unchanging’
Problems
Mainly pragmatic If I am changing and my ‘self’ now
will not be around in 10 years why bother planning for the future
Body Theory o f Personal Identity
The most intuitive theory Most compatible with
common sense As long as we deal with
the same body we deal we deal with the same person
Although our body goes through changes we are numerically dealing with the same physical body
Example
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 tumour. The operation is a success. In this situation would you tell Jacob his mother was still alive
The case of Hannibal Lecter Most of us subscribe to body
theory Detectives in seeking to
prove the man they have in custody is the serial killer Hannibal Lecter attempt to prove this by comparing DNA samples found at the scene of a crime with the DNA of the man they have in jail
This principle is based on the idea that same body is the same person
Problems
Total amnesia It is reasonable to say
that a person suffering from complete amnesia has lost their sense of self and is no longer the same person
Therefore personal identity is dependent on psychological continuity
Soul Theory of Personal Identity Similar to body theory in the sense
it tries to link personal identity to an enduring entity – the soul
Same soul = same person Easily explains life after death Brain stops, heart stops the non
physical soul continues to exist The soul is immaterial, non
physical, an entity outside time and space, a perfect essence in an imperfect body
Linked to Plato’s concept of the soul and it’s yearning to be released from the imperfect physical body into the realms of the perfect ‘forms’ or ‘ideas’
Memory Theory of Personal Identity
John Locke first to develop a version of the memory theory
‘For since consciousness always accompanies thinking, and it is that, that makes everyone to be, what he calls ‘self’; and thereby distinguishes himself from all other thinking things, in this alone consists personal identity…as far as this consciousness can be extended backwards to any past action or thought so far reaches the identity of that person’
We are connected to the past as long as it is somehow present within us
Supporting evidence
Imagine you are at a school reunion 20 years later and you wanted to know whether someone was the same person you remembered 20 years ago. All you need to do is have a conversation with that person and talk about past memories from school. If the person remembers those events it seems logical to conclude it is in fact the same person.
Final Remarks
There is no clear cut solution