Psychological Continuity Theory Vs. Physical Continuity Theory

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Firstly, to understand replication we must determine what a person is and for a person to exist over a certain period of time. We must consider what makes each individual person different that gives us our own personal identity and separating us from certain objects such as plants or furniture. Descartes believes that the soul and mind is what gives an individual their personal identity.

Two leading theories that must be identified which have debated over personal identity are ‘psychological continuity theory’ and the ‘physical continuity theory’. Psychological continuity theory believes that a person at a particular time is the same person at an earlier or later stage in life, if they have their mind and soul carried with them. Physical continuity theory is the view that the same person will be the same individual in their life, if they are physically continuous with that …show more content…

According to the physical continuity view the brain is considered the most crucial element of the body, so by replicating one self through teletransportation is equivalent to death. So in that case the original body and brain is destroyed in the process of the telestransportation which means the replica of the individual would not be the same because it does not hold the original brain. The psychological account holds two views, a narrow view and a wide view. The narrow view demands that psychological continuity to be done ‘normally’ as for the wide view accepts any cause to be sufficient to secure psychological continuity (Parfit, 1984). However, in the branching teletransportation case does not accept that you survive unless you are psychological continuous in another person’s body. So therefore this case implies that the individual will lose he/shes personal identity in both psychological

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