Can Psychological Continuity Alone Establish Personal Identity Essay

Question 3: Can psychological continuity alone establish personal identity (/ individual continuity overtime) or does it presuppose it?

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Student No: #201347697

Psychological continuity theory is when a person at one time is the same as the person of the future if and only if the person of the future is psychological continuous (memories) with the person of the past (Parfit p.202). We remember being in our experiences, we can not trust our memories because it is guided by our consciousness of personal identity; because we know the something does not mean it is the truth (Parfit p.219). So, does psychological continuity alone establish personal identity or does it presuppose it? It presupposes it because, although, memories play a big part in identifying who we are, other

Although, the psychological seems to be more dominant aspect of personal identity, the others are important as well. The older we get, the more the memory fades and we depend on others to remind us of whom we are. We need both the physical and spiritual aspect too. They will act as a support to the psychological aspect. The physical helps us see ourselves using our substance formation e.g DNA and origin e.g our ancestry. The spiritual is our conscience, it is something that is neither physical nor psychological (cite). It is also known as the soul. We often hear the expression “that person is soulless,” well that is because the soul is the part of our personal identity that controls our morals and ethics and sometimes our emotions. It is an important part because it makes us seem noble to some and horrible to others. Therefore, psychological continuity alone can not establish personality; it can only give us memories and memories sometimes are not enough explain what or who we