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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