PHIL 200 Lecture 14: Lecture 14
19 Jun 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Locke: "as far as this consciousness can be extended backwards to any
past action or throughout, so far reaches the identity of that person; it
is the same self now it was then and it is by the same self with this
present one that now reflects on it, than that action was done"
The core of an account of personal identity that has survived to
this time
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Locke raises this issue in rewards and punishments
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Main concern was dealing with moral responsibility
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Law recognizes the insane and sane person as different persons
Don't punish people for actions they are not conscious of
§
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Reid's gallant officer
Hero in battle at 25
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10 years old remembers flogging
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At 65 he doesn't remember flogging but remembers the battle
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25 hero in battle remember he was flogged as a 10 year old
This raises the question if the 64 year old is the same as the
25 year old because he doesn't remember some of his
memories
§
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Connection and continuity
X is psychologically connected, as some future time, with Y now
just if X is the psychological states she is in then largely because
of the psychological states Y is in now
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X is now psychologically continuous with a past or future Y only if
some of X's current mental state relate to those Y is in then by a
chain of psychological connections
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The Wiggins Case
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Both are psychologically continuous
My brain is divided with each hemisphere transplanted into a
new body, which of the resulting people is me?
Three possibilities:
I don't survive
□
I survive as one
□
I survive as both □
§
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Most plausible option is that you survive as both, but the
problem is that it doesn't seem to allow for talk of identity
Seem to end up with two different people
§
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Trying to isolate what we are concerned about when we are concerned
about our survival
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We are concerned with our psychological continuity
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Both survivors remembers thoughts and experiences, etc.
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Implications:
Just as if I have survived
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Everything that matters in ordinary survival is preserved and the
identity relation is not important in survival
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Persons are sums of psychological states; gradually merge into
descendent persons
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As you get older, you take on new memories and forget old ones
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The degree of continuity between the 25 and 10 year old
diminishes
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Continuity between 25 and 65 increases
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Continuity is a matter of degree that diminishes with temporal
distance from the subjects
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Matters of survival are degree
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Lecture 14
Wednesday, November 1, 2017
12:40 PM
Document Summary
The core of an account of personal identity that has survived to this time. Locke raises this issue in rewards and punishments. Law recognizes the insane and sane person as different persons. Don"t punish people for actions they are not conscious of. At 65 he doesn"t remember flogging but remembers the battle. 25 hero in battle remember he was flogged as a 10 year old. This raises the question if the 64 year old is the same as the. 25 year old because he doesn"t remember some of his memories. X is psychologically connected, as some future time, with y now just if x is the psychological states she is in then largely because of the psychological states y is in now. X is now psychologically continuous with a past or future y only if some of x"s current mental state relate to those y is in then by a chain of psychological connections.
