On 18/07/2016 3:40 pm, Stathis Papaioannou wrote:
On 18 July 2016 at 15:16, Bruce Kellett <bhkell...@optusnet.com.au <mailto:bhkell...@optusnet.com.au>> wrote:

    On 18/07/2016 3:04 pm, Stathis Papaioannou wrote:
    On 18 July 2016 at 12:53, Bruce Kellett
    <bhkell...@optusnet.com.au <mailto:bhkell...@optusnet.com.au>> wrote:

        So in your duplication scenarios, the case in which the
        original is duplicated, but continues to exist, the closest
        continuer theory would have some measure that gave
        significance to bodily continuity, so we would say that the
        original person continued intact, and that, although sharing
        some background with the continuer, a new individual was
        created in the manufactured duplicate. In the duplication
        scenario in which the original is cut or deleted, then there
        is no preferred unique continuer, so there is a tie, and we
        would say that two new persons are created (the original
        having been destroyed).

        If you think these things through, you can see that this
        theory of personal identity resolves all the problems that
        your "psychological" theory encounters.


    Without a psychological theory of continuity this whole
    discussion would be unnecessary. We could just say that a person
    has been copied, the two copies are identical, and the original
    was destroyed. The problems arise because each copy has memories
    of being the original and, because of the phenomenon of first
    person experience, feels that he is the one true copy persisting
    through time - even though intellectually he knows this is not true.

    We all know that feelings are an unreliable guide to anything.
    Careful analysis is a much better guide to what is actually going
    on. I might, in a moment of waking confusion, fell that I am the
    reincarnation of Cleopatra, but that is not a reliable feeling.


But if it were an absolutely consistent feeling across all people under certain circumstances, we could discuss the phenomenon, including what happens when two or more people claiming to be Cleopatra meet.

We cope with the occasional illusion/delusion by reference to the external world. Mass delusions can be more problematic -- as the history of the world shows.

Bruce

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