Ch 4 Personal identity - Thought Expirements

What theory does Locke’s tale of the prince and the cobbler challenge?

A counterexample to animalism’s claim that personal identity requires the same body

What theory does the King of China challenge?

Soul theory

What theory does the Nestor and Thersites challenge?

Soul theory

What theory does the Reid’s Tale of the Brave Officer and the Senile General challenge?

Memory theory’s claim that personal identity requires a shared experience memory

William’s Reincarnation of Guy Fawkes

Charles wakes up and claims to remember witnessing events and doing actions unanimous to a historical person — Guy Fawkes.

Is Charles now Guy Fawkes? Did Guy Fawkes come to life again in Charle’s body?

William’s Reduplication Argument

If it’s possible that Charles should undergo the reincarnation of Guy Fawkes, then it’s possiblke for someone else to go through the same changes as well. But two people can’t both be Guy Fawkes because Guy Fakwes would then be in two places at once. It is absurd, so we can’t say that they are both identitical to Guy Fawkes

What theory does William’s Reduplication Argument challenge?

It challenges the claim that psychological continuity is enough for personal identity

What theory does Parfit’s Transporter Tale challenge?

It challenges the claim that psychological continuity is enough for personal identity

What theory does Shoemaker’s Brain Transplant challenge?

It challenges the claim that personal identity requires physical continuity of the body.

Parfit’s Division

Each of Parfit’s cerebral hemispheres is transplanted into a seperate body that is indistinguishable from his own, resulting in two persons from the transplant being psychologically continuous with Parfit’s psychology. But two cannot be one.

What theory does Parfit’s Division challenge?

It challenges the claim that the same psychology produced by the same brain is enough for personal identity.

Parfit’s Reformed Nobelist

Suppose a 90-year-old Nobel Peace Pirze winner confesses that it was he who injured a policeman in a drunket brawl when he was 20 years old.

What theory does the Parfit’s Reformed Nobelist challenge?

It challenges the claim that one is fully responsible for whatever one remembers doing.