Identity

Psychological continuity, memory and identity

The breakfast problem 

  • As sameness of memory is a necessary condition to have the same personal identity but if one can’t remember what they had for breakfast the day before, it technically means that they’re not identical 

The brave officer 

  • Two parts of Locke’s view together  

  • The theory goes that there is a person each in 3 different timelines. Person A is a child who stole candy. Person B is a brave officer who won a medal for his outstanding service and Person C is a retired general. 

  • The general remembers himself winning the medal but not stealing the candy while the officer in that timeline remembers stealing candy. 

  • According to John Locke’s theory if one recalls the memory of their past person then they are generally the same person. However Person C doesn’t remember the memory of Person A, but remembers has Person B. And Person B remembers the memory of Person A. So due to the transitivity of identity is the Person A the same person as person A? 

What matters in identity?

The Ship of Theseus: 

  • The ship of Theseus is a ship that is created with wooden planks. As it travels through the seas, its wooden planks starts to decay and required replacement. So the wooden planks gets a replacement until eventually, every single plank o the ship has been replaced. 

  • The question was whether if it’s still the same shipÂ