Rebeckah Wright
Thursday, October 31st, 2002

Theories of Reality
10/31/02
Personal Identity

Announcements: Read chapter 6 (Palmer) by Tuesday; we will be discussing free will next week
-if you are last in class to receive a stack of hand outs that has distributed around the room, please make sure the remainders get back to Professor Borrowdale


Personal Identity (P.I.):
specific qualities distinguishing you from others
-at a moment in time
-over durations of time
What makes you YOU? or
What is a person? or
What do "I" and "me" refer to?
??What makes you the same person as you were yesterday and throughout the past??
-memories of experiences
-way a person thinks/processes
-likes/dislikes
-ineffable me-ness or raw self-awareness
-genetic code?---what about twins?
-beliefs?---can change over time
-physical body?

two popular ways of defining personality...
Psychological Continuity:
-memories
-desires
-goals
-personality traits
-beliefs

Bodily Continuity: no gap in existence-needs to be some pattern of organization of matter(O.K. for atoms to come in and out as long as it's gradual)
arguments:
-if you lose a limb, are you the same person?... the trauma could alter you psychologically, but the change wouldn't be specific effect of limb missing
-this is how you I.D. others, but not WHO they are... we know how to find minds because we know which bodies go with them
-body-switch thought experiment: if a prince and pauper woke up one morning finding themselves in each other's bodies, you, supposedly, would be able to tell differences in their personalities despite their new outward appearance

concepts of immortality which don't preserve P.I.:
-having children---some same genes, ideas, but not really you
-leaving lasting work of art, scientific achievement, invention
-living on in memories of others---remembered image of person does not posses consciousness
-my atoms will still exist (becoming one w/ nature)---atoms'll disperse, but consciousness is gone
-cloning ??If your clone was identical to you psychologically and physically would you rather... (A)your clone gets $1 billion
and you're tortured to death or (B)you get $1 and your clone's tortured to death?
If clone was really YOU, you'd want to die & give clone $1 billion$ - right?

In Class Discussions:
-inner personality reflects on outer appearance
-physical appearance creates certain reactions from others & affects way you feel about self
-multiple personalities are a fragmentation of the personality; nowadays, healing process attempts to integrate different personalities back into one
-??If beliefs, desires, goals, expressions are picked up from others/environment, how is it that individual is separate/unique??
---maybe uniqueness is how these things are combined/used in/by individual