Module 4 - Personal Identity

Western perception of identity

-individualistic

-innately obtained

-focus on preservation of identity

1st aspect of western perception of identity

individualistic

2nd aspect of western perception of identity

innately obtained

3rd aspect of western perception of identity

focus on preservation of identity

Western theories of identity

-Somatic theories

-Psychological theories

Somatic theories overview

-the body makes you a person

-some theories say we exist in the central nervous system rather than whole body

-contrasted with dualism

Psychological theories overview

Continuity of psychological functions makes you a person

Logic of psychological theories

-If X and Y are people, X = Y if X has memories of being Y

Reid's argument

Our memories have gaps in places, does that mean we are different people?

The soldier argument

a. X=Y if Y has memories of X

b. The soldier has memory og being punished as a boy

soldier = boy

c. the general has memory of being the soldier

general = soldier

d. the general does not remember being punished as a boy

general != boy

But B and C show that general = bpy

Hybrid view

A person X at t1 and person Y at t2 are numerically one and the same iff person Y is both psychologically and materialy continuous with person X

Problem with the hybrid view

In split brain patients both halves of the brain are psychologically and physically you. Are they both you?

Split brain patient

A patient who has had most or all of his or her corpus callosum severed, resulting in two separate consciousnesses in the same physical body

Problems with somatic theories

-ship of theseus/cell replacement

Menkiti's communitarian account

-Personhood earned

-Defined through relationship to others

-community makes individuals

-personhood as a spectrum, you can become more of a person

1st aspect of Menkiti's communitarian account

personhood is earned

2nd aspect of Menkiti's communitarian account

Personhood is defined through relationship to others

3rd aspect of Menkiti's communitarian account

The community makes the individual

4th aspect of Menkiti's communitarian account

Personhood as a spectrum, you can become more of a person

Support for Menkiti's communitarian account

Language

Grief

Language in support of Menkiti's communitarian account

Babies spoken of as 'it'

Grief as support for Menkiti's communitarian account

Grieving for the elderly and grieving for a newborn are different

Problems with Menkiti's communitarian account

-Child and animal abuse. We cannot abuse children because they have the potential to become fully-fledged members of society

-Gendered. Women seem to gain personhood through use of their bodies

-Ableist. Personhood is gained through the use of the body

1st problem with Menkiti's communitarian account

-Child and animal abuse.

We cannot abuse children because they have the potential to become fully fledged members of society

2nd problem with Menkiti's communitarian account

-Gendered.

Women seem to gain personhood through use of their bodies

3rd problem with Menkiti's communitarian account

-Ableist.

Personhood is gained through the use of the body

Buddhist view of self

-The ego-centric view only leads to selfishness, greed and self-loathing

-The self is either an illusion or delusion

Buddhism and the fear of death

Accepting there is no self rids us of the fear of death

Problems with Buddhist view

-Hard to believe all humans are born delusional

Atma-moha

confusion regarding the self

Eschatology

Study of the afterlife and death

Illusion

-a faulty perception

-can be escaped

-possible to understand ________ yet still experience it

Delusion

-self referential narrative fabrications

-begins with an anomalous percept that is interpreted as evidence of a false narrative

Rahula on the buddhist view of no-self

"There is no thinker behind the thought. Thought itself is the thinker. If you remove the thought, there is no thinker to be found"

Collective immortality

-After death you are still a person, an ancestor

-A newly dead person is more person than a newborn child