Diachronic Personal Identity Analysis

Great Essays
This paper will center on the nature of diachronic personal identity; specifically, bodily continuity personal identity as my stance. I will define a person, and explain the difference between synchronic and diachronic thoughts of personal identity. Next, I will analyze Lock’s stance on synchronic and diachronic personal identity. Afterward, I will analyze Reid’s perspective & objections against Lock’s view of diachronic personal identity. Per the objections outlined by Reid, I will explicate the objection involving our inability to remember events of our earliest childhood and the objection from the old general analysis. Last, I will expand on my stance on what is necessary in diachronic personal identity for a person and I will conclude my …show more content…
To clarify, we might seem to recall things that did not actually happened to us; hence, this may be inform of dreams or illusions (Green, 2015). This aspect of experience of remembering something that happens in dream is excluded in the perspective of diachronic personal identity; hence, this kind of memory from dreams might be classified as apparent memory, while the real memory we can recall is termed genuine memory (Green, 2015). Considering the Lock’s theory of diachronic personal identity below:
“Person stage P1 is a stage of the same person as person-stage P2 if and only if P2 can genuinely remember experiences had by P1” (Green,
…show more content…
Here I would consider Reid’s question and objection irrelevant, so long as the theory illustrates the concept of memory links. Furthermore, Reid may ask, how would you describe somebody who had conceived a brain disease that he barely remembers anything, let alone making connections over the stages of his life be regarded as the same person with regard to memory links over time? Indeed, the question above seems to pose a problem for diachronic personal identity. This question maybe answered by including body and nervous system in the definition of the diachronic personal identity, which goes this way: if the person with a brain damage had possessed the same body and nervous system; therefore, both individuals’ stages are classified as one person. for instance, to identify a criminal case, we generally use finger print, to tender justice; so, if his finger print shows the same biological marker, as the earlier stage, surely the present stage of the criminal is still the same person irrespective of any condition. Vividly, the theory below summarizes the bodily continuity personal

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    In John Perry’s A Dialogue on Personal Identity and Immortality, Perry discusses both the possibility of immortality (the ability to survive after death) and the question of personal identity. In the process, he proposes three theories as to what could account for personal identity: soul theory, memory theory, and body theory. First, however, it is necessary to discuss what the question of personal identity is. Personal identity refers to a human being’s numerical identity over time. Thus, the question of personal identity essentially asks what must be preserved in order for a person to be considered the same, or continuous, over time.…

    • 1193 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Personal identity is a common philosophical struggle that humans face. What makes us who we are, and why are we here are two crucial questions we have debated over since the dawn of civilization. From birth, we are constantly gaining experience and knowledge not only to survive but also to create our own world-view. Even though we are complex creatures, we have a tendency to categorize the world around us into simple boxes. When a new topic is introduced which doesn’t already fit in one of our boxes, we are offset by this idea.…

    • 1341 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    A Journey Through Choices Imagine looking at a mirror and seeing nothing but a blank gray image;there is no character and no difference from one person from the next. From several works of art, individuals form their identity and gained control of themselves. Equality, the triumphant of the dystopian novel, Anthem, escapes his collectivist society and becomes the king of his own mind and body. Ayn Rand, the author of this novel, details how Equality overcomes the regime and forms his own identity. Similarly, the children from the article, “Don’t!…

    • 817 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    To rely solely on memory being the cause of personal identity over time means that no one is the same person forever. No one can recall what they did and where they were on a random date ten years ago, meaning they were not the same person at that time even if they remembered it at some point. We can also bring in the case of a person who suffered some type of memory loss. They may not remember an exact memory, but remember memories from before that, meaning they were the same person as then, but not at the time in between. Can a person really have a gap in their life where they were not the same person as they are now?…

    • 780 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Texts Set Assignment Text Name: The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros What it's about: Chapter 4 focuses on Esperanza reflecting on her name. During the process, she reveals “marks” of her identity: how she identifies herself, what she values, where her family is from, and other topics that are relevant to this project. She talks about how she does not like her name and that others could pronounce it correctly.…

    • 936 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In Brison 's account of personal identity, she offers it from a perspective most of us can not; a perspective from trauma. In her post modern view she objects to traditional beliefs of personal identity. I will state the traditional view, and then why Brison objects to it. After that I will raise a possible objection to Brisons arguments, and defend her Criticism of the traditional belief. The first traditional belief that is challenged by Brison is that philosophy is to be clean, and controllable.…

    • 766 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Personal Identity Concept

    • 1237 Words
    • 5 Pages

    However, other theories come into play and reject the psychological approach to explaining personal identity and it’s persistence over time; claims that continuity of the brain and memory are not enough to explain and confirm personal identity are made. These theories include the biological approach, the dualist theory, and the materialist theory. Through the review of these theories respectively, a clearer understanding of personal identity can be developed and argued for. Following this, we can begin to see how cases of multiples personalities or identities can be argued to exist as…

    • 1237 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    “Identit[ies] cannot be found or fabricated, but they emerge from within when someone has the courage to let go” (Cooper). A person’s identity is unique to themselves, and it defines who or what a person is, and the qualities that make them who they are. Identities are shaped by an individual’s personal experiences, outside sources, their upbringing, and by role models. In The Other Wes Moore, two boys living across the street from each other have very different outcomes in life.…

    • 616 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Parfit explored two possible explanations to determine if humans are composed of bodily or psychological continuity. From this statement, he continued to develop his argument to claim that human identity is neither physical or mental. By not determining what personal identity encompassed, Parfit endorsed reductionism. From the use of Relation R, Parfit acknowledged that personal identity is not the important factor, but rather psychological connectedness is. Humans are reducible to more basic components than psychological or bodily continuity.…

    • 1000 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Hume vs Locke What is personal identity? What is the “self”? There is a great debate that surrounds this subject in philosophy. So, which philosopher has the right idea? Is it David Hume with his theory of impressions?…

    • 1303 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Superior Essays

    With memories comes emotions, reactions, and unfiltered thoughts in any given situation that shows the person’s identity. This may give us glimpse at their personality but their memories are also determined by their identities. This is the problem of…

    • 1890 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    People have always been interested in the idea of finding out about personal identity, what makes you the same person as you were when you were five and what will make you the same person when you are eighty. Derek Parfit summed up this idea by saying “Whatever happens between now and any future time, either I shall still exist, or I shall not. Any future experience will either be my experience, or it will not.” (Parfit- 186), which is what personal identity looks into. This essay will discuss whether personal identity is a matter of physical or psychological continuity, taking into account the famous ideas of philosophers such as John Locke, Derek Parfit and Bernard Williams.…

    • 1500 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    If the single body cease to exist, due to the nature of the link between psychological person stages, the memory is not able to continue and hence, survival is not possible. The duplication objection gives rise to the theory that many alternative casual processes that may provide survival for one endorsing the view of memory theory should exist. In John Perry’s Dialog on Personal Identity, the duplication objection observed the idea that upon death, God transfers all information of a person from past to future onto a “heavenly rememberer” in order for survival of the memory to continue. This heavenly rememberer would think, speak, remember and experience all the things we have experienced in life and have the capability of passing by as any individual that God wishes to preserve.…

    • 1074 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Christian Park Assignment #6 In this paper, I will define two concepts of personal identity, one being the Ego Theory, and the other being the Bundle Theory. By presenting examples of teletransportation and split-brain patients, I will show that the Bundle Theory is more plausible, which indicates that our natural beliefs of personal identity are false and inconclusive. According to the Ego Theory, a person existing over time is explained by a continued existence of a subject of experiences. The consciousness of a person is unified at any moment of time because there there is only one person having many experiences at that moment.…

    • 1315 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Great Essays

    The beginning of understanding oneself starts with identity. For centuries, philosophers have contemplated a common issue known as the mind-body problem. The mind-body problem is a philosophical problem that asks the question of what we as people are. Are people a mind, a body, or a combination of the two? There are several major works that pertain to this problem, but this argument will focus on those given by Gilbert Ryle, Rene Descartes, and Richard Taylor.…

    • 1524 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays