When one speaks of personal identity, one can do so with a predefined understanding of it to be the consistent unity of an individual person normally attested by continuity of memory with present consciousness. Contextually most beings go through this period of trying to identify their own personal identity or asses what’d they like it to be, furthermore, one would need to look at what makes up an person as an individual or their personal identity. Posing questions such as, does identity change over time, or are we always the same person? At what level are the components to personal identity essential and must remain without displacement?
Prior to Mary and Jake’s accident, each were separate beings different in mental and physical capacities …show more content…
There are various plausible conclusions to be formed in response to these questions. One might reason that the physical aspect of someone overpowers the importance of the brain because it displays a great deal of an individual's personhood. Another may choose to believe the being post-accident is Mary given that what remains of her, such as thoughts and memories, lay the foundation of her identity as a whole. Also, this being could also very well be classified as a new person all together, as a combination of both students. As long as the brain can accept this new body as part and in order to form its new identity. However, there stands one more possibility that this being is neither Jack nor Mary. But how can a being exist with the brain of one person and the body of another, combining their physical identity with their mental experiences, without being ones or the other? Simply, we don't know. There proves to be no truly correct answer, because there is no certain way to answer the question. Leaving this a dilemma open to further theories operating under the definition of the individual's view of …show more content…
This theory of consciousness, also known as the psychological states criterion, give explanation to the embodiment of one’s personal identity as the individuals successive thoughts and memories; as well as the progression of a set of remembered experiences throughout their time. Under this criterion its questioned, what happens when a person loses their memories? In the book Philosophical Traditions, Pojman gives a Thomas Reid esque suggestion responding to the problem.
“Suppose there is a military officer who at age 25 is a hero in battle and who remembers getting a flogging…at age 10. Later, at age 65, he recalls the heroic deed done at 25 but cannot recall the flogging. Yet the memory of the flogging defined his personhood at 25, so if he is the same person who was a hero at 25, must he not also be the same person who was flogged at 10, even though he no longer recalls the
Prior to Mary and Jake’s accident, each were separate beings different in mental and physical capacities …show more content…
There are various plausible conclusions to be formed in response to these questions. One might reason that the physical aspect of someone overpowers the importance of the brain because it displays a great deal of an individual's personhood. Another may choose to believe the being post-accident is Mary given that what remains of her, such as thoughts and memories, lay the foundation of her identity as a whole. Also, this being could also very well be classified as a new person all together, as a combination of both students. As long as the brain can accept this new body as part and in order to form its new identity. However, there stands one more possibility that this being is neither Jack nor Mary. But how can a being exist with the brain of one person and the body of another, combining their physical identity with their mental experiences, without being ones or the other? Simply, we don't know. There proves to be no truly correct answer, because there is no certain way to answer the question. Leaving this a dilemma open to further theories operating under the definition of the individual's view of …show more content…
This theory of consciousness, also known as the psychological states criterion, give explanation to the embodiment of one’s personal identity as the individuals successive thoughts and memories; as well as the progression of a set of remembered experiences throughout their time. Under this criterion its questioned, what happens when a person loses their memories? In the book Philosophical Traditions, Pojman gives a Thomas Reid esque suggestion responding to the problem.
“Suppose there is a military officer who at age 25 is a hero in battle and who remembers getting a flogging…at age 10. Later, at age 65, he recalls the heroic deed done at 25 but cannot recall the flogging. Yet the memory of the flogging defined his personhood at 25, so if he is the same person who was a hero at 25, must he not also be the same person who was flogged at 10, even though he no longer recalls the