what makes me me ?
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What makes me me ?. Plan. Overview of personal identity issues ‘Multiple Personality Disorder’ (or, ‘Dissociative Identity Disorder’). What makes you you ?. TIME. Overview of process. Starting point. Abstraction. Distinction. Thought experiments. 3 distinctions. Substance & Property. - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
Plan❄Overview of personal
identity issues
❄‘Multiple Personality Disorder’ (or, ‘Dissociative Identity Disorder’)
If my essence is X, then (1) any entity which has X is me,
and (2) any entity which does not have X is not me.
My Essence
Sufficient condition
Necessary
condition
Working, by fluke?❄A theory may seem
right under some scenarios
❄Need to test it with extreme scenarios to check its foundations
❄Use of thought experiments ❊Isolate variables by making
assumptions
Case 2: Forgetful grandmother
❄At dinner, you discover the person who seems like your grandmother has completely lost her memory
❄Is she still the mother of your parent?
Who is responsible for the robberies committed by the robber?
Case 3: The Prince & the Robber Princ
e Mind
Robber Mind
1. My entire body2. Whatever is physically
continuous with my body at the time of conception
3. My brain
My essence is my body
I am what is physically continuous with my body at
birth
“I can survive the gradual replacement of my body parts.”
1. Seems to account for our concerns about brain transplants
2. Much of what seems most tied to a person’s identity is dependent on her brain
My essence is my brain
Who is responsible for the robberies committed by the robber?
Case 3: The Prince & the Robber
Prince
Mind
Robber Mind
or is your brain just the way to secure your psyche, which may be your true essence?
Preservation of essence
Preservation of psyche
Preservation of essence
Preservation of psyche
Is your brain really your essence?
Case 2: Forgetful grandmother
❄At dinner, you discover the person whom you considered your grandmother has completely lost her memory
❄Is she still the mother of your parent?
False memories❄Recently, someone
claims he remembers writing Hamlet
❄Shakespeare wrote the Hamlet
❄So is he Shakespeare?
My essence is my soul❄Souls are invisible
❄How do we tell if you are you?❊We can see your body❊We can experience your psyche❊BUT how do we tell whether your soul
has changed?
What is my essence?
My body My psyche My soul
The tale of 2
carpets
Forgetfulgranny
The prince &
the robber
Difficulties
Sufficient?
Necessary?
Duplication problem
Big picture
Personality changes
• For any proposed essence E, it seems possible for a perfect duplicate of E to exist
• What then differentiates E from E-duplicate?
The duplication problem
• Solution 1?• Duplicates may not exist
• Solution 2?• Individuality is a primitive notion
• Cannot be explained in other terms
The duplication problem
• ‘Thisness’ or Haecceity• In some cases, the difference
between X and Y is ultimate • A thisness is the property of being
identical with a particular individual, such that only that particular individual can have that property
Individuality
Review❄Key concepts❄What makes me me?
❊Body theory❊Psyche theory❊Soul theory
❄What is necessary?❄What is sufficient?
A matter of Will
Euthanize?
Normal person
Normal person
Severe Amnesiac
In vegetative
state
Should we respect the Will?
Use of property?
Christine Beauchamp❄Nervous, ailing,
impressionable ❄Neglected by mother she
adored, abused by father❄Suffered 3 shocks in
1893❄Consulted with Dr
Morton Prince
B1
B1a
The Saint: Deeply religious, morbidly conscientious..
‘She’• Despises B1• ‘Stupid, half-
asleep’
Sally
• Seems to know the thoughts and actions of B1 & B1a
• Claims to have existed as co-conscious person from B1’s early childhood
“Merry, irresponsible,
child of nature”
B I
B Ia
Sally
B IV
B IVa
The Idiot: • No memory of what happened
since trauma in 1893 (6 years back)
• Impatient, aggressive, resentful
B I
B Ia
Sally
B IV
B IVa
B IISober, responsible, well-balanced• Claims to be both BI & BIV• Has virtues of both, but not their
vices
19041893-
‘Multiple Persons’❄No continuity of consciousness
❊Lacking knowledge & memory relations
❄Radically different personality, each complex & consistent internally❊Different characteristics, allergies, bodily
responses
❄Each is an intentional system❊Rational, conscious, self-conscious, subject of
moral consideration
‘Multiple Persons’❄1st person perspective shows
self-understanding as person❊Awareness of unique identity, concerned
with non-existence❄Alternate & Simultaneous
existence❊Not just linear temporal existence, but
co-existence
‘1 Person’2 senses of person/personality
Appearance meaning• Persona, mask• How you present
yourself to others
• Person in the numerical sense
• The true self
Reality meaning
Confusion“we should not confuse the appearance of natural persons with the reality of natural persons, and that we should appeal to psychology, biology, and physiology, not ordinary experience, to distinguish them.”
- Lizza
What’s the real self?Morton Prince:
“A normal self must be able to adjust itself physiologically to its environment, otherwise all sorts of perverted reactions of the body arise, along with psychological stigmata (amnesia, suggestibility, etc.), and it becomes a sick self. Common experience shows that, philosophize as you will, there is an empirical self which may be designated the real normal self. However, I shall put aside this question for the present and assume that there is a normal self, a particular Miss Beauchamp, who is physiologically as well as psychologically best adapted to any environment.”
Natural kinds❄There is a distinction
between the natural & artificial
❄We are familiar with natural persons and can refer to them to discern the unnatural
❄Natural persons are not like BI, BIV, Sally
Christine Beauchamp is 1 person
“Miss Beauchamp's personalities suffer from severe mental and physical defects: aboulia, impulsions, neurasthenia, amnesia of actions and thoughts, violent mood and character changes, abnormal suggestibility, and severe limitations in their ability to adapt to their environment. Normal, real persons do not suffer from these defects, or at least not all of them.”