PHIL-201 Lecture Notes - Lecture 16: Wrinkle
14 Dec 2017
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Document Summary
Understand distinctions between conventional and ultimate truth, qualitative and numerical identity, causal continuity and no self. Eg causal continuity does not imply a self (permanent, fixed). There is a line of continuity between the aggregates; no literal sameness exists but a chain of cause and effect connecting our states (aggregates) Causal continuity can still be used in creating moral responsibility: a campfire is started to keep the person warm and is left unattended. The mango seed: one takes another persons mangoes, from the man who planted the seeds. The mangoes consumed are not the same as the seed you planted . But there is causal continuity between the two, and thus responsibility arises for the man who took them. Thus although there is no sameness of self over time, we still have personal responsibility, based on causal continuity. We primarily think of ourselves as numerically identical throughout time (a self that exists.
