Personal Identity and Death

PHL204 Module 2: Personal Identity and Death

Module 1

Can You Survive Teleportation to Mars?

Numerical Identity

A must be the exact same object as B if they are numerically identical
Ex: Clark Kent and Superman are numerically identical

Qualitative Identity

A and B must have the same qualitative properties to be qualitatively identical
Ex: Two red lego bricks that have the same size, shape and color

Personal Identity

A numerical identity that makes you the same person over time

Bodily Continuity

An option to explain personal identity, argues that you are the same person over time because you share the same body

Ship of Theseus

Imagine the Ship of Theseus is getting old and we start to replace each of its parts with new parts until every part is replaced

Is this still the same ship?

Imagine that you take all the old parts and you assemble a new ship using all and only those parts

Which of the two ships is the Ship of Theseus?

Psychological Continuity

An option to explain personal identity, argues that you are the same person over time because you hold the same consciousness

Mind-Swapping Thought Experiment

Bernard Williams

• Imagine a scientist swaps all of person A’s psychological data with person B’s

  • After the procedure, one of the bodies will be tortured and the other will be given $1 million

  • Ask person A before the mind-swap: which body do you pick to get tortured after the mind-swap?

  • What should they answer?

• Imagine a scientist is going to hook you up to a machine that will drive you insane by deleting all of your
  memories and beliefs etc

  • Then the scientist is going to implant a whole new set of memories and beliefs in you

  • After the procedure, the scientist will torture you

  • Will you be afraid in that situation? why or why not?

• If you think the two situations are different, then what makes them different?

Bernard Williams

Argued on the side of Bodily Continuity

Argued there is no difference between the mind-swap experiment and the being-driven insane experiment

Transporter Paradox

• Imagine we have the Star Trek teleportation machine that can teleport anyone from here to Mars almost instantaneously

  • It makes an atom-for-atom duplicate of you on Mars while destroying your physical body here

  • The person that steps out of the teleportation machine is psychologically continuous with you

• Suppose the machine malfunctions and it creates two exact duplicates of you, one duplicate of you on the Moon and another on Mars

  • There are now two physical duplicates of you

  • Both are psychologically continuous with you but how can both be identical with you

Supervenience

A philosophical relation where one set of properties or facts depends on another set, meaning there can be no difference in the first set without a difference in the second set
Ex: A computer screen image where the picture or words on the display supervene on the arrangement of pixels

• No difference without a base difference: You cannot change the picture, words, or colors on the screen without changing how the underlying pixels are arranged and lit

• Asymmetric dependence: The image depends on the pixels, but the pixels do not depend on the image. You can change the size, resolution, or hardware of the screen (changing the pixels) while displaying the exact same image

Options on Personal Identity for the Transporter Paradox

1. You are identical to both persons: the person on earth and the person that steps out of the machine on Mars

2. You are identical to just one of these persons

3. You are identical to neither of them

Module 2

Is Death Bad for You?

Absurdism Approach on Death

Life has no meaning, so why is death bad for you?

Religious Approach on Death

There is an afterlife, so why worry about death?

Kagan’s Four Possible Answers on Death

1. Death is bad for you intrinsically

2. Death is bad for you instrumentally

3. Death is not bad for you, it is bad for those that survive you

4. Death is bad for you comparatively

Death is Bad for you Intrinsically

In virtue of itself

Ex: Pain is an instrinsic harm, it is bad in it of itself as it leads to suffering

Death is Bad for You Instrumentally

In virtue of some other element

Ex: Poverty is an instrumental harm, it is a way of getting to harm, not harmful itself

Existence Requirement

Some properties can only be attributed to you if you actually exist (are alive)

Death is Bad for Those That Survive You

If there is any harm at all that happens on your death, it is a harm to those that are separated from you by your death

Given the existence requirement, you will not be harmed because you do not exist (are dead), it is those around you that will suffer

Counterexample

If X, then Y
A situation where the antecedent (X) is true but the consequent (Y) is false

Death is Bad for You Comparatively

You lose out on something that you would have had if you had not died: more life

Deprivation Account

There is an opportunity cost to death, as it deprives you of more meaningful experiences within your life

The 3 Challenges to the Deprivation Account

1. How can you be deprived of something if you are unaware of it?

2. When exactly are you harmed if you are dead?

3. What about all that you were deprived of before you were born?

Awareness and Deprivation

What matters is not the deprivation itself but rather the awareness of that deprivation

If there is a situation where you are not aware, there remains a contingent (dependant on future) possibility that you could become aware of the deprivation
If there is a situation where you never become aware, those around you could be harmed

Existence and Deprivation

• I shoot John on Monday, John is wounded and hospitalized

• On Tuesday, I die of a heart-attack

• On Wednesday John dies of his wounds

In relation to the Existence Requirement, this would mean there is no time that I killed John

Either we must deny that some things need to be true at a specific time or deny the existence requirement

In consideration to those who have never existed (never been born) have they been deprived?

A more modest Existence Requirement could say you can be harmed only if you existed at one time or another, however this provides weird outcome as well

Birth and Deprivation

If being deprived of life after death is bad for us, then we must consider the life we were deprived of before we were born

There must then be an asymmetry between the deprivation after death and before birth

We suffer schmoss before birth, which explains this asymmetry

The reason we take loss after death seriously and not schmoss before birth is because loss is contingent

You can imagine a life lost after you die but you cannot imagine a life where you were born earlier

Schmoss

The harm we suffer before birth, essentially not harmful, opposite to the harm we suffer after death

Module 3

Should You Fear Death

The Epicurean Argument

He argues we should not fear death because:

1. We are alive, and so death cannot hurt us

2. We are dead, and so we cannot be hurt

Either way we should not fear death

Krishnamurti and Watts

if one fears death, this is not just a fear of non-existence but a fear of the unknown
Both Krishnamurti and Watts argue that we should not fear the unknown
Krishnamurti argues that death is the end of personal identity understood in terms of psychological continuity, we can embrace having a fresh mind and rid ourselves of all of our attachments
Arguments can be made against this as wouldn’t we enjoy our attachments and value the experiences and skills we developed through life?

Epistemic Justification

Based on evidence for the action or belief

Pragmatic Justification

Based on utility for the action or belief

Blaise Pascal (1623-1662)

His Wager is that there is no epistemic argument we can make for God

What happens after death is unknowable for us, we have no way of gathering evidence about it so instead, the best we can do is reason about what would be in our best interests

• If you believe in God when you die and:

  • there is a God, you will attain Infinite Bliss in heaven

  • there is no God, then you won’t know you were wrong

• If you don’t believe in God when you die and:

  • there is a God, then you will suffer Infinite Torment in hell

  • there is no God, then you won’t know you were right

So either believe or pretend that you believe until you actually believe

Overcoming Fear of Death

Krishnamurti argues that we should embrace the unknown of death

Krishnamurti agrees with Pascal that we do this through practice

He tells us to:

• Let go of something you are attached to today as practice

• And keep doing this until you no longer fear letting go of all your attachments

Module 4

Is MAID Ethical?

MAID

Medical Assistance in Dying (2016) in Canada

As of Dec 2024, there have been a total of 60,301 MAID deaths reported in Canada, the average age of the deaths being 77.6 years

The most common reason is cancer (63% of patients)

Administering Death in MAID

1. A physician or nurse directly administers a substance that causes death

2. The patient themselves takes the substance that causes death

MAID Eligibility

• Be at least 18 years old & eligible for healthcare in Canada

• Be mentally competent (be able to make your own health care decisions)

• Have a "grievous and irremediable medical condition"

  • have a serious illness, disease or disability

  • be in an advanced state of decline that cannot be reversed

  • experience unbearable physical or mental suffering that cannot be relieved under conditions you deem acceptable

  • it is not required that you have a fatal or terminal
    condition

  • if your only condition is a mental illness this doesn’t qualify until 2027

• Make a voluntary request for MAID

• Give informed consent to receive MAID

Morality

• We have to respect the autonomous choices of all persons as long as those choices do not harm others (this requires competence in being able to decide for yourself)

• We want to promote the well-being of all persons and those that are suffering (whether or not it is terminal) may have their well-being served better by death

There is a moral dilemma with this as if a doctor suggests MAID, it could be considered as pressuring the patient

Autonomy

The capacity to make your own decisions free of coercion or dependence

Well-Being

A state of being comfortable, happy, and fulfilled

Logical Relations

The truth, meaning, or state of one component directly influences another

Necessity and Sufficiency

X is sufficient for Y, once you have X, you get Y

ex: being in Toronto suffices to be in Canada

Y is necessary for X if you cannot have X without Y

ex: being in Canada is necessary to be in Toronto

Autonomy Alone

If this were enough to have the right to MAID, then somebody could request MAID in a situation in which, for example, they are "tired of life" and we would have no means of resisting their request

Therefore this condition cannot suffice for the right, it can only be necessary for the right

Well-Being Alone

If this were enough to have the right to MAID, then somebody could receive MAID in a situation in which they cannot make any decisions at all, or have no competence to make decisions

Therefore this condition cannot suffice for the right, it can only be necessary for the right

Palliative Care

Palliative care is a healthcare approach that optimized well-being and aims to reduce or even eliminate suffering, however it has many everyday side effects that a patient may not want, therefore MAID may be a better option

Paternalism

A system in which healthcare providers (primarily doctors) make decisions on patient treatment based on their own judgment rather than on the wishes or preferences of the patient

Other Treatments

Uncontroversially allowing patients to refuse life-prolonging treatment, leading to eventual death

Given they already have this choice, MAID should then also be a choice for them

Passive Euthanasia (Let Die)

Morally permissible way to let patients die as they refuse life-prolonging treatment and therefore no steps are taken to help them

Ex: DNR

Active Euthanasia (End a Life)

To form an intention and act so that a patient’s life is ended (with or without consent)

Competence

Patients who cannot think rationally due to severe pain may lack the right to MAID, but most MAID applicants are mentally competent

Coercion

Patients may be pressured into MAID by doctors initiating the conversation or by limited access to housing and treatment compared to the faster process of obtaining MAID

Mental Health

MAID for mental illness alone raises concerns about determining whether conditions are irremediable, since treatability exists on a spectrum and support may improve patients’ lives.