Personal Identity Essay Example For Students

Personal Identity Essay Personal Identity Essay can be broken down into three areas: 1.) Body 2.) Memory and 3.) Soul. In John Perrys A Dialogue on Personal Identity and Immortality these composing aspects of personal identity are discussed at length. In the reading and class discussions the body was defined clearly as a part of ones person, even alluded to at times as a prison in which one cannot escape until one dies. Memory and ones Soul seemed to be lumped together many times, understandably so, for the two bare many things in common such as they are intangible, cannot be completely defined as to what each exactly is (people remember things that did not actually happen to them, are those still memories?; do you have one soul throughout your life?), and both are thought to compose ones character and beliefs. This essay will deal with the two aspects of ones personal identity which are the most obvious in day to day life, that of the body and of soul/memory. As stated beforehand, memory and the soul bare many of the same qualities. The body and soul, however, also share this trait. Perry illustrates in his essay that the body and soul are similar because there is a link between one another, that is they both make up a person and are responsible for the qualities associated with being an individual (height, weight, character, belief, etc. Also a problem arrives in alterations to a body. If John goes to war, becomes injured by a mine, and then has his legs amputated is he not still the same person, John? Therefore, the preceding definition of body theory is not sufficient, since it does not account alterations to the same body. Yet another problem is numerical. If someone were to get a finger chopped off, would that finger be considered another person? What if a scientist was to use someones DNA and replicate another person with the same body? Surely just because there are two identical bodies, these bodies cannot be the same person. They would live two different lives. Therefore, the body theory alone cannot be considered a necessary and sufficient definition when defining personal identity. Another common theory of personal identity is the soul theory. This theory is: a person is has personal identity if and only if they have the same soul. The problem with this theory is arrived from the definition of a soul. Soul is a very difficult term. It is thought by many to be a spirit that passes from your body into another realm (i.e. , heaven, hell, etc.). However, since no one has ever seen, felt, touched, smelled, or tasted a soul, it is a mysterious phenomenon. Since we have no clear and distinct idea of a soul , it would not be wise to base the definition upon it. For instance, some religions believe in reincarnation after death. This is when a soul enters another body. With this in mind, someones soul such as Elvis could become reincarnated in someone else named John. However, we would not say that this Elvis and John are the same person . Therefore, the definition of the soul theory fails in that the definiens does not become sufficient for defining personal identity. The most recognized true philosophical theory of personal identity is the consciousness theory. The consciousness theory is believed by most to be the best definition of personal identity according to most philosophers. However, there are three different versions of the consciousness theory that will be discussed in further detail: the conscious self, experiential content, and connected stream of consciousness theories. First, we have the theory of a conscious self: a person has a personal identity if he or she has the same conscious self. In other words, if two people have a different conscious, then they each have personal identity. At a first glance, this would be a good definition of a personal identity. It is analogous to Descartes cogito, I think therefore I am. Being conscious would mean knowing that one exists, and able to think about any experience that happens. However the main fault with this is that it is a circular definition. Kabuki architecture Essay We are using the definiens in the definiendum which is not a good tactic of defining personal identity. Next, a common derivative of the consciousness theory is the consciousness of experiences theory. This is defined as having the same experiential content. This theory is based upon Lockes theory of the mind being blank, and building from .