Argumentative Essay On Personal Identity

Alex Knight
3/18/14
Professor Chen
Philosophy 06
Midterm Paper
The argument of Personal Identity goes at the two most common views that are perceived to be the foreground for majority of early conversations of personal identity. The first view is the view that all everything that’s ever been asked about personal identity must have an absolute conclusion. It is known fact by all that at some point in the future we will either exist here on planet earth, or not exist at all. Questions concerning personal identity are definitely yes or no. The 2nd view is that there are things concerning personal identity that are of importance to us, these issues pertain to those of “survival, memory, and responsibility” as Parfit briefly describes. This doesn’t suffice though, until the problem of personal identity is answered. In order to decide whether or not I

Parfit exposes this hole even worse and states that majority of what does in fact matter can be best described in ways that don’t presume identity. Instead of speaking of identity, for instance, we should speak in terms of the past and future selves. Memories can also be recapped in a way that doesn’t take for granted that I, myself, am the same as the person whose experiences I am recalling. Parfit makes some notion of “q-memories” yet it doesn’t hold the notion that I, the person recalling, am the exact same person who had the experience that I just recalled. It’s as if I am remembering memories without ever actually having to experience them. If we actually were able to have other people’s memories, for instance, in class you referenced two famous movies “Blade Runner” and “Total Recall”, then we wouldn’t be allowed to take up that memories do hint at a valid form of identity. Parfit argues that several of the affairs that are a result of “psychological continuity” can be retold in ways that don’t presume