What is a human being?The Problem of Personal Identity

Do we always remain the same during our life?

There are 4 responses to this question

Illusion theory Body theory Soul theory Memory theory

Illusion theory of Personal Identity

According 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.

The case for Illusion Theory Human undergo continuous qualitative

change Our bodies are from one minute to the

next gaining and losing physical material Every 7 years our entire physical make

up has changed Empirical evidence points to the idea

there is no permanent or unchanging self

Personal identity is an illusion

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’

Heraclitus (535-475BCE)

First to state that everything in the universe (including ourselves) undergoes permanent change

Put 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

William James (1842-1910)

Agrees with the principle of our selves as a constantly changing river

He writes ‘Our consciousness is in constant change…consciousness flows. A river or stream is the metaphor by which it is most naturally described’

Therefore

If 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

Buddhist teachings support this idea Belief in a permanent self is the main

source of suffering They believe in Anicca – The belief that

nothing stays the same Therefore Anatta – The belief that

there is no self. Self is an illusion Christmas 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’

Problems

Mainly pragmatic If I am changing and my ‘self’ now

will not be around in 10 years why bother planning for the future

Body Theory o f Personal Identity

The most intuitive theory Most compatible with

common sense As long as we deal with

the same body we deal we deal with the same person

Although our body goes through changes we are numerically dealing with the same physical body

Example

Jenny 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

The case of Hannibal Lecter Most of us subscribe to body

theory Detectives 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 jail

This principle is based on the idea that same body is the same person

Problems

Total amnesia It is reasonable to say

that a person suffering from complete amnesia has lost their sense of self and is no longer the same person

Therefore personal identity is dependent on psychological continuity

Soul Theory of Personal Identity Similar to body theory in the sense

it tries to link personal identity to an enduring entity – the soul

Same soul = same person Easily explains life after death Brain stops, heart stops the non

physical soul continues to exist The soul is immaterial, non

physical, an entity outside time and space, a perfect essence in an imperfect body

Linked 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’

Memory Theory of Personal Identity

John 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

Supporting evidence

Imagine 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.

Final Remarks

There is no clear cut solution