Psychological Continuity: Is It Adequate To Personal Identity?

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In 3014, the opportunity to explore new worlds and civilizations will have been made possible by cutting-edge technology: the tele-transporter. The tele-transporter will essentially scan every cell while simultaneously destroying them and an identical replication of the person will be composed at the desired destination. All memories and characteristics will remain intact, therefore, the dilemma at hand is whether or not an individual would be the same person they were before and after a journey of successively tele-transporting. I argue that the person in question, Alex, would in fact be the same person. Rather than the physical body, personal identity and psychological continuity are essential in deciding if he is the same person after each …show more content…

Personal identity cannot easily be reduced down to just the physical body. It cannot even be reduced to the brain, but what the brain holds. Only the psychological characteristics of a person are what is necessary for personal identity. A person’s personal identity is defined by their own unique thoughts, beliefs, emotions, and personality or character. In addition, a person must be conscious of these characteristics in order for them to actually define their personal identity.
So what is psychological continuity and how is it related to personal identity? Essentially what psychological continuity means is that the mental state of a person at a later time, Time B, derives from the mental state at an earlier time, Time A. For Alex, Time A is at the point right before tele-transporting and Time B occurs after. In order for Alex to be the same person at both Time A and Time B, his personal identity must extend over time. The act of personal identity persisting over time is what it means to be psychologically …show more content…

Rather it is important to note he is the same person in both times because there is a chain of linked memories, emotions, and character. This means that presently you can remember most of your experiences that occurred yesterday, tomorrow you will remember most of today's experiences, and so on. So in the future there will be a chain of memories leading back to yesterday, and leading back to the day you were born, which you will no longer have memory of. Although our personal identities and the components that make them up do change, they change gradually over time. Due to the chain of psychological characteristics (personal identity) linking from the later person in Time B to the earlier person in Time A, Alex is psychologically continuous. Thus, Alex is the same person in both times because there is a continuity of his mental

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