Personal identity is about getting at the obligatory and adequate conditions for what it is to exist across time. Through this issue, we have a realist who believes in personal identity over time, a dualist claim that you are identical to a non-physical thing that is essentially different to fundamental physical things and it introduces new primitive terms that cannot be reduced to the soul, and we have a physicalism that is about personal identity claims that you are a physical thing and will offer an analysis in completely physical terms. We are trying to know the attitudes, beliefs, characteristics, interests, activities and relationships of an individual. Trying to find the aspect of our being that makes an individual who they are and who they are not. Every individual has their own identity, through life we can see that two …show more content…
The bodily theory is a person who exists at one time that is identical to something that exists in another time just in case they have the same body, saying that you are in your body and not someone else. Any bodily view must be wrong because of personal identity; due to our bodies existing throughout time. In the soul view, a person cannot be diminished to oblivion. Aristotle’s bodily view showed that individuals are identical to their bodies. An example would be when a person dies in 2015; they have the property of ceasing to exist in 2015. Their body will have the property of continuing to exist in 2015, these are incompatible properties, and therefore they are not identical to their body. The psychological continuity theory is part of a general theory of physical objects called four-dimensionalism. Four-dimensionalism is introduced by contrasting it with the common sense view of physical objects and the physical world. If a person from the past were to be compared to a person from the future and they have the same character traits, memories, and
True identity is something people must create for themselves by making choices that are significant and that require a courageous commitment in the face of challenges. Identity means having ideas and values that one lives by” (Merton). Concurring with Merton, a person is not given their identity at birth or while developing as an embryo, rather it is something that you create for yourselves over the course of life through decisions and actions made by the individual. Identity is something that one may not be fully aware of or discover until the last breath. Identity can be influenced through associations with others, and environmental factors.
In my opinion, personal identity is the concept you develop about yourself over the whole course of your life. This can be made up of things, events, and circumstances that you have faced that is beyond your control. However, it is shaped by the conscious decisions that you have made, as well. Both the uncontrollable and uncontrollable things may affect your life depending on the stage of life that you are in. Growing up, your external situations may have more control over your identity, such as your race/ethnicity. While in adulthood, you control your personal identity by your internal decisions, such as expressing your sexuality or deciding to get married. In their own unique ways, the readings that illustrate these distinctions are On Being
In this paper I offer an explication of John Perry’s dialogue on the problem of personal identity, and my evaluation of the strongest account of personal identity between the body, mind, and soul. In this paper I will argue that the strongest account of personal identity is that a person can be identified by their soul. By having the sameness of soul you will then be able to solve the problem of personal identity. Your soul is the foundation of whom you are and by definition, personal identity means “The persistent and continuous unity of the individual person normally attested by continuity of memory with present consciousness.” And without your soul memory could not exist.
Identity is a group of characteristics, data or information that belongs exactly to one person or a group of people and that make it possible to establish differences between them. The consciousness that people have about themselves is part of their identity as well as what makes them unique. According to psychologists, identity is a consistent definition of one’s self as a unique individual, in terms of role, attitudes, beliefs and aspirations. Identity tries to define who people are, what they are, where they go or what they want to be or to do. Identity could depend on self-knowledge, self-esteem, or the ability of individuals to achieve their goals. Through self-analysis people can define who they are and who the people around them are. The most interesting point about identity is that some people know what they want and who they are, while it takes forever for others to figure out the factors mentioned before. Many of the individuals analyzed in this essay are confused about the different possible roles or positions they can adopt, and that’s exactly the reason they look for some professional help.
But this would allow for three bodies to have the same identity, which cannot be the case when talking about an identity that can belong to one and only one person. Therefore, in defense of the memory theory, memory theorists like those in Perry’s work advocate for the addition of an addendum to the original theory: person A at time point A is identical to person B at time point B if and only if there is only one person at time point B who is psychologically continuous with person A. This revision eliminates the possibility of duplication examples discrediting the memory theory as a viable answer to our questions of personal
The differences of mind and soul have intrigued mankind since the dawn of time, Rene Descartes, Thomas Nagel, and Plato have addressed the differences between mind and matter. Does the soul remain despite the demise of its material extension? Is the soul immaterial? Are bodies, but a mere extension of forms in the physical world? Descartes, Nagel, and Plato agree that the immaterial soul and the physical body are distinct entities.
Correspondingly, the functionalism approach to personal identity will be understood from the dualist perspective in our case. Though, as previously explained this view is acceptable as a materialist theory, I believe that not having a strictly physical understanding to this approach is more beneficial as even the biological explanation in the field of neuroscience does not fully explain the occurrence of dissociative identity
What is personal identity? This question has been asked and debated by philosophers for centuries. The problem of personal identity is determining what conditions and qualities are necessary and sufficient for a person to exist as the same being at one time as another. Some think personal identity is physical, taking a materialistic perspective believing that bodily continuity or physicality is what makes a person a person with the view that even mental things are caused by some kind of physical occurrence. Others take a more idealist approach with the belief that mental continuity is the sole factor in establishing personal identity holding that physical things are just reflections of the mind. One more perspective on personal identity and the one I will attempt to explain and defend in this paper is that personal identity requires both physical and psychological continuity; my argument is as follows:
...of the body, and no problem arises of how soul and body can be united into a substantial whole: ‘there is no need to investigate whether the soul and the body are one, any more than the wax and the shape, or in general the matter of each thing and that of which it is the matter; for while “one” and “being” are said in many ways, the primary [sense] is actuality’ (De anima 2.1, 12B6–9).Many twentieth-century philosophers have been looking for just such a via media between materialism and dualism, at least for the case of the human mind; and much scholarly attention has gone into asking whether Aristotle’s view can be aligned with one of the modern alternatives, or whether it offers something preferable to any of the modern alternatives, or whether it is so bound up with a falsified Aristotelian science that it must regretfully be dismissed as no longer a live option.
The problem of personal identity is difficult to solve, especially since there is ambiguity in the terms. Identity may mean the same person or how one sees oneself. Anyhow, philosophers wish to assess this issue and find a suitable explanation, one motivation being responsibility. Humans will hold others responsible for acts such as murder, theft, and fraud. However, the person who will face the consequences must be the one who truly committed the wrongful act. A second motivation is interest in the future. An individual may become concerned or excited for an event that will occur in the future. Surely, these emotions entail that they will be the same person once that event occurs. The last motivation for resolving personal identity is immortality; basically, what will connect a person to whatever lives on after their physical death. Something can be identical in two ways: quantitatively or qualitatively. To be quantitatively identical is to be numerically identical, and to be qualitatively identical is to share exact qualities. There are two criterions on which personal identity is based, but the most important is the metaphysical criterion, which attempts to explain “being” or existence, without the necessity of physical evidence ...
Identity. What is identity? One will say that it is the distinct personality of an individual. Others will say that identity is the behavior of a person in response to their surrounding environment. At certain points of time, some people search for their identity in order to understand their existence in life. In regards, identity is shaped into an individual through the social trials of life that involve family and peers, the religious beliefs by the practice of certain faiths, and cultural awareness through family history and traditions. These are what shape the identity of an individual.
Identity is popularly regarded as a combination of personality, feelings and beliefs. Basically, identity defines who a person is. It is used to describe and distinguish the personality of people. It is what makes people unique. Some may believe that identity and personality are similar or the same, but personality is simply an insincere impression and does not involve a person’s hidden feelings and beliefs. That is, the way we are brought up is what defines us; it is what we become or what we are and that cannot be changed in any way until we embrace a different culture or decide to change our way of doing things.
Now, duplication problem has to be considered, for there can not be two numerically the same people. Psychological sameness would make two individuals qualitatively alike, but they would still remain numerically different.
The concept of personal identity is a central philosophical component to a debate to which many theorists have contributed their theories to. One of the most prominent theories on personal identities was by John Locke, one of the influential theorist in the 17th century.
Self-identity is one of the main themes of philosophy throughout its history. In general, “self-identity” is a term that means thoughts or feelings with which you distinguish you from others, and we use the term in ordinary conversation without a solid concept of “self-identity”. However, arguing about self-identity philosophically, there arise many questions: whether there is any essence of yourself, whether you are the same person as you when you were a baby, whether memory or experience makes you, and what is “self-identity.” To solve these questions, many philosophers have been arguing the topic “self identity” for so long.