4 Responses To Personal Identity
- 1. What is a human being?The Problem of Personal Identity
- 2. Do we always remain the same during our life?There are 4 responses to this questionIllusion theoryBody theorySoul theoryMemory theory
- 3. Illusion theory of Personal IdentityAccording to the illusion theory, there is no self that persists through time. We change from one moment to the next and turn constantly in to a new person. To think that something in us remains the same is an illusion.
- 4. The case for Illusion TheoryHuman undergo continuous qualitative changeOur bodies are from one minute to the next gaining and losing physical materialEvery 7 years our entire physical make up has changedEmpirical evidence points to the idea there is no permanent or unchanging selfPersonal identity is an illusion
- 5. David Hume (1711-1776)In The Treatise on Human Nature argues we cannot observe any permanent self‘…the mind is s a kind of theatre, where several perceptions successively make appearance; pass, re-pass, glide away, and mingle in a variety of postures and situations’This is known as Hume’s ‘Bundle Theory’
- 6. Heraclitus (535-475BCE)First to state that everything in the universe (including ourselves) undergoes permanent changePut forward the famous idea….’It is not possible to step into the same river twice….it scatters and again comes together, and approaches and recedes’It is tempting to think of our selves in terms of a river
- 7. William James (1842-1910)Agrees with the principle of our selves as a constantly changing riverHe writes ‘Our consciousness is in constant change…consciousness flows. A river or stream is the metaphor by which it is most naturally described’
- 8. ThereforeIf our bodies undergo permanent change as well as our minds it seems plausible to conclude that the idea of a permanent self that persists through time is indeed a convenient illusion
- 9. Buddhist teachings support this ideaBelief in a permanent self is the main source of sufferingThey believe in Anicca – The belief that nothing stays the same Therefore Anatta – The belief that there is no self. Self is an illusionChristmas Humphreys former president of the Buddhist society ‘…All that exists, from a ole to a mountain, from a thought to an empire, passes through the same cycle of existence ie birth, growth, decay and death…the law of change applies equally to the ‘soul’. There is no principle in an individual which is immortal and unchanging’
- 10. ProblemsMainly pragmaticIf I am changing and my ‘self’ now will not be around in 10 years why bother planning for the future
- 11. Body Theory o f Personal IdentityThe most intuitive theoryMost compatible with common senseAs long as we deal with the same body we deal we deal with the same personAlthough our body goes through changes we are numerically dealing with the same physical body
- 12. ExampleJenny the 35 year old mother of Jacob has a serious car accident and is seriously injured. In order to keep her alive doctors have to remove her uninjured brain from her skull and transplant it into the body of a 25 year old African American woman recently dead from a brain tumour. The operation is a success. In this situation would you tell Jacob his mother was still alive
- 13. The case of Hannibal LecterMost of us subscribe to body theoryDetectives in seeking to prove the man they have in custody is the serial killer Hannibal Lecter attempt to prove this by comparing DNA samples found at the scene of a crime with the DNA of the man they have in jailThis principle is based on the idea that same body is the same person
- 14. ProblemsTotal amnesiaIt is reasonable to say that a person suffering from complete amnesia has lost their sense of self and is no longer the same personTherefore personal identity is dependent on psychological continuity
- 15. Soul Theory of Personal IdentitySimilar to body theory in the sense it tries to link personal identity to an enduring entity – the soulSame soul = same personEasily explains life after deathBrain stops, heart stops the non physical soul continues to existThe soul is immaterial, non physical, an entity outside time and space, a perfect essence in an imperfect bodyLinked to Plato’s concept of the soul and it’s yearning to be released from the imperfect physical body into the realms of the perfect ‘forms’ or ‘ideas’
- 16. Memory Theory of Personal IdentityJohn Locke first to develop a version of the memory theory‘For since consciousness always accompanies thinking, and it is that, that makes everyone to be, what he calls ‘self’; and thereby distinguishes himself from all other thinking things, in this alone consists personal identity…as far as this consciousness can be extended backwards to any past action or thought so far reaches the identity of that person’We are connected to the past as long as it is somehow present within us
- 17. Supporting evidenceImagine you are at a school reunion 20 years later and you wanted to know whether someone was the same person you remembered 20 years ago. All you need to do is have a conversation with that person and talk about past memories from school. If the person remembers those events it seems logical to conclude it is in fact the same person.
- 18. Final RemarksThere is no clear cut solution