Meaning of Life Exam 1

Numerically Identical

relation that holds between A and B if and only if everything that is true of A is also true of B and vice versa. Relation that relates every object to itself and not to anything else

• Locke

Reflective awareness

• relationship by which we gain private, introspective access to our mental life 

• Locke

Memory Criterion

• Something is the same person as something at a later time if and only if the latter can recall being aware of some experience the former was aware of. 

• Locke

Spirits

• immaterial beings. May be what is conscious, but the criterion of personal identity cannot be same immaterial substance or thing, nor same collection of immaterial substances or things

• Locke

Human beings:

• a man or human being, composition of material substances that exhibits the functional consciousness, but their identity does not consist in sameness of stuff, and the criterion of personal identity cannot be the same as the criterion of identity for human beings

• Locke

Psychological connectedness

•  refers to certain direct relations between features

• Parfit

Psychological continuity

• overlapping chains of strong connectedness 

• Parfit

Parfit survival:

• not relation of identity, uses the term “survival” to refer to this relation

• Parfit

Intrinsic Hedonism

• pleasure ( or pleasant experiences) is the only thing that is intrinsically good for us (good for us in itself), while pain is the only thing intrinsically bad for us, bad in itself

• Epicurus

Ataraxia

• freedom from suffering

• Epicurus

Viability account

• roughly what makes organisms alive is their capacity to develop and maintain themselves using vital processes such as respiration, photosynthesis, or chemosynthesis, or similar processes

• DeGrazia

Vitality account

• what makes an organism alive (or living) is its deployment of these processes. (Living is an event and being alive requires that this event continues. 

• DeGrazia

Welfare Level

• sum of one's pleasure and pain over that period of time

• Feldman

Overall good

• if lifetime welfare level is higher if that event occurred than it would be if it did not occur

• Feldman

Overall bad:

• if lifetime welfare level would be lower if that event occurred that it would be if it did not occur 

• Feldman

Diachronic Value

• value over time 

• Velleman

Synchronic Value

• value at particular times

• Velleman

Substance Sortal

• Defines the fundamental being of an object throughout its existence

• sortal term or concept which defines a kind of object

• Locke

Phase Sortal

• Defines an object during specific stage or period of its existence

• New phase portals can occur to same person 

• Locke