The Pros And Cons Of Personal Identity

Anyone who asks the question, “who am I?” or “what is my purpose?” have dealt with the dilemma of personal identity. Everyone, weather they know it or not, is striving for personal identity. It may be the clothes they where, how they act, and even the people they associate themselves with. A wide array of philosophers with different backgrounds and from different eras; give there input on this question. What is personal Identity? In this essay I answer this somewhat ambiguous question. I will explain the three main views when it comes to personal identity, immaterial, psychological, and bodily. After the review of the pros and cons of each view I will explain why psychological identity is the most sound of all three theories; when it comes …show more content…
The Julia North case is often brought up when discussing personal identity. Julia North’s body was injured beyond repair, yet her brain was perfectly intact. Mary Frances who witnessed the traumatic experience of Julia North being mangled; in turn had a stroke and died. After all was said and done there was a fresh brain and a robust body, yet one was from Julia and the other Mary. Dr. Mathews, who I believe had a Frankenstein complex, decided to combine the two to create one monster; I mean human (Perry, pg. 327). Going back to John Perry’s writings the three acquaintance discuss which person was alive, Julia North or Mary Francis.
The Julia North case coincides with the argument against bodily identity, where you wake up and you’re in a totally different body, but you keep your memories. The Julia North case further refutes the bodily identity theory because the woman who woke up after surgery was Julia North, although in Mary Francis’s body. Weirob believes that in reality the woman that woke up was actually Mary Francis who just was just “seeming” to remember being Julia North (Perry, pg.