Personal Identity
Personal identity is a strenuous topic to comprehend yet very interesting when one understands it. There are many questions that help an individual to define his or her identity. These questions include “Who am I” and “What it is to be a person”. The question “Who am I” is often asked to understand what makes one unique from others. It defines the network characteristics, values, and personal traits that structure one’s life. The question “What it is to be a person” helps one to understand what differentiate a person and non-person. The two mentioned questions are important in the subject of personal identity. Often, people know that an individual is the same over time, but the question that bothers many is why an individual is the same in different circumstances. This essay presents different circumstances that make a person remain the same person over time. In doing, this essay highlight why the new circumstances may appeal better despite the person remaining the same over time.
Circumstances That Makes a Person Remain the Same
A perfect example of a circumstance that a person remains the same person over a time is the following. First, a circumstance of evaluating whether the person that existed in a foetus or embryo is the same person as he is now after twenty years. This is a question that helps one to understand an account of identity over time. In this case, a person would be the same person he was in a foetus because of the same body he had during that period. To illustrate this point, one would consider that a person who existed in the foetus is identical with the personal that exists today if both have similar bodies. At this point, one may need to understand that a body does not change. Although time may change, the body remain the same from stage of foetus to adulthood. The continuous bodily existence that lies in two scenarios are based on the biological approach such as DNA and psychological criterion that requires one to have similar memory and experiences.
In a different circumstance, a person who was in class eleven days ago can only be the same student if he has the memory and experience from the past. This is because, the psychological continuity criterion claims that an individual can only be the same if his past psychological parts resemble his present psychological part. In this case, one needs to distinguish what a student actually remembers and what he seems to remember. One needs to distinguish the two concepts to define the psychological continuity criterion of the person. A student cannot be an identical to a student who was in class eleven days ago if he only seems to remember or recall his experiences. He must actually remember his experiences for him to be termed the same person over time. A person who actually remembers is one who is similar or identical to the person in the past who did past uttering and thinking. With this in mind, a student who was in class eleven days ago survives the single person if only his psychological stretch contain actual memories of past experiences.
In response to the above circumstance, a student who was in class eleven days ago can only be the same student today, if he has the same Psychological Continuity Criterion (PCC). PCC requires the same memory and experiences. The actual memory is one caused by earlier experiences and employed as the same person. Still, one can argue that the student is the same person because he has the same body, which is similar to that of eleven days ago. Additionally, he is the same person because he has the same memory and experience from the past. These aspects provide a strong path to understand the combination of the bodily criterion and psychological continuity criterion in defining the same person.
In this case, questions may be raised for an individual who does not believe in the possibility of the soul or mind. Some people may wonder whether or not it is the persistence of the body that makes him the same over time. Now, suppose that body was sick and some body cells were replaced with new ones. Will the individual still be the same with the new body? The individual would be the same since the body has psychological continuity criterion that consists similar memory and experiences from the past. Although an individual may change in terms of his health status, an individual remain the same over time because of the same bodily criterion that obliges one to have the same body and psychological criterion that regards one to have similar memory and experiences.
A Comparison of this analysis with other discussed subjects
The bodily criterion of Personal Identity
Some philosophers believe that a person remains the same over time because of the bodily criterion of the personal identity (Perry, 2008). Philosophers believe that bodily criterion is a significant aspect that anyone thinking about or defining personal identity should put into consideration. The bodily criterion is an important aspect or the thesis of the personal identity. It is an account of what an individual takes to persist over time. Specifically, this means that an individual cannot survive without a body and this explains why individuals go where their bodies go. Being a person or an individual implies that one should have the same body over time. In this case, regardless the health status of an individual the body does not change. From the mentioned circumstances, one can affirm that it is possible for a person to remain the same person over time. The concept of the bodily criterion of a personal identity underline that an individual can only survive if the matching body survives. This implies that, the death of personal body is the end of him or her.
Although philosophers believe that bodily criterion is an important aspect that defines personal identity, some people believe that there are misconceptions about the subject. As argued by Catterson (2008), one does not need to understand the bodily identity to understand personal identity as it changes over time. For instance, the bodily criterion may change in various instances such as the following. The case of a Julia North whose body is ruined over by a car. After the accident, Julia’s brain is transferred into the nearby woman who had a stroke. In this case, the question that lingers in many is on who is the survivor of the operation? The concept of having the same memory and experiences would not guarantee Julia’s survival. Although Julia’s bodily criterion is necessary to define her identity over time, her memory is not sufficient to define her identity since her brain has been transplanted into the woman. This explains why it is possible to judge ones identity without examining one’s body criterion. Still, it explains why it is possible to explain ones identity without examining ones psychological continuity criterion just like in the given case study.
The psychological continuity criterion
Most philosophers believe that the past or future being can only be a person if there are similar memory and experiences (Perry, 2008). On this subject, philosophers believe that personal identity is not a mere substance rather a matter of psychological parts being related. Although it is difficult for a person to distinguish what he actually recall and what he seem to recall, one need to distinguish these aspects to enhance a continuity of psychological criterion. There is a difference between an individual who seems to remember and one that seems to be actually remembering. A person who actually remembers is identical with an individual who did the past uttering and thinking. Nevertheless, a person who seems to remember is not identical to the person in the past.
Although psychological continuity criterion creates a solid path to understand and define personal identity, some people disagree with its concept. This is because an individual cannot be similar or identical to two different people. This shows that, if Julie’s brain was transplanted into the woman he cannot be the same person since Julies’ memory is different from the woman. When transplanted, it is obvious that both will have different memories and experiences. Although there may be a difference in psychological continuity criterion, the person who in this case is Julie has not changed the identical since he has the same bodily criterion.
Why the New Circumstances may be better
The new circumstances may be better since they create a strong ground to understand why a person may remain identical or not. Based on the presented case study of Julie who had an accident and her brain was transplanted into a woman who suffered from stroke, it is true that an individual may remain the same but differ in psychological continuity approach. In other words, a person may be identical to who he was in the past despite changing her memory and experiences.
Conclusion
To sum up, this essay provides a comprehensive analysis of the subject personal identity. This paper has brought into attention that personal identity is vital as it defines ones personal traits, character traits, and habits among others. This subject of personal identity is the philosophical confrontation that creates questions of human being’s existence, who they are, and define their life after death. In distinguishing these elements, the criterion of the personal identity from time to time is discussed. To create insights on the subject, this paper has presented different circumstances that an individual may remain the same over time. From this analysis, one can argue that bodily continuity criterion and psychological continuity criterion are important factors that one needs to understand to fully comprehend the concept of identity. The fact that human beings have unique bodies with different personality traits, character traits, and habits, one would then affirm that a person may remain the same person over time.
References
Catterson, T. T. (2008). Personal identity. Dordrecht: Springer.
Perry, J. (2008). Personal identity. Berkeley: University of California Press.
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