Am I the Same Self I was Ten Years Ago?

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"To rise again - to be the same person that you were - you must have your memory perfectly fresh and present; for it is memory that makes your identity. If your memory be lost, how will you be the same man?" — Voltaire

Perhaps even Voltaire took a look in the mirror and questioned the same things I ask myself every day. Who am I, and who will I become? Am I the same self I was ten years ago? Some philosophers may question, “Am I the same person that continues to exist overtime, despite changes in my body? How can we know that we are today, the persons we were last week?” These types of questions may seem superficial on the surface but deep down, it is the basis of self-perception.

Philosopher David Hume would argue that it is the psychological mind or the memory. It is the mind rather than the body that creates our personal identity. Hume believed that “the identity of persons and objects are two sides of the same coin”. In other words, objects and human beings were the same yesterday or ten years ago that we are today. Although we may have changed in many different ways over time, the same self or object is still present today as the same self was back then.

While I agree with these beliefs, I’ve only to argue one statement that I learned throughout this course. Self, is seemingly none other than your soul or the inner you. Person, is who your ‘self’ has been, who you are now and in the future. In other words I believe that self-perception is more of an interior mindset, while the person is the body or the exterior that the self lives in. Which leads me to agree with Hume’s belief that we are the same self that we have always been, but the person we are growing into is quite busy going through many different changes. An obj...

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...d within and agreed with one another that the soul has stayed the same; just like the ship that sailed into the harbor and was remodeled, they always feel like a shiny new penny but the same soul has always remained inside the exterior.

How do I know that I am the same person as I was ten years ago? I know that I am, because I was born into this body that has gone through many changes and life changing events, but the same me exists within this body and my ‘self’ will remain with this body even after its expiration. I am still and will forever always be the same me.

Works Cited

Hume, David. “The Self”. . Feinberg ed. Belmont: Wadsworth, 1993,pp. 324-326

Waldow, A. (2010). Identity of Persons and Objects: Why Hume Considered Both as Two Sides of the Same Coin. Journal Of Scottish Philosophy, 8(2), 147-167. doi:10.3366/jsp.2010.0004

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