PHIL 100 Study Guide - Midterm Guide: Revised Version, Dementia, Personal Identity
Document Summary
Formal statement: what are the conditions for person p2 at the time t2 being the same as person p1 at an earlier time t1: our bodies and mental states are constantly changing. Ex: 2 numerically distinct dogs might be qualitatively identical. Consequences of the problem: the possibility of an afterlife, morality, mental illness, cloning, amnesia, split-brain experiments. We normally appeal first to bodily identity (or physical appearance) Consciousness/memory ex: waking up in the morning. Perry"s dialogue personal identity and immortality: gretchen weirob: philosophy instructor, sam miller: chaplain and friend, dave cohen: former student, sam miller defends the soul-substance theory (gretchen weirob. P2 is the same person as p1 if p2"s soul is the same as p1"s soul. Identifies something that is intrinsically unchanging over time! Challenge of the soul-substance theory: we cannot observe someone else"s soul. Sam miller"s answer: we use bodily identity and then reason using the principle.
