Weirob is wright to claim that personal identity cannot consist in the sameness of an immaterial, unobservable soul. (In Perry’s dialogue on personal mortality) On her death bed Gretchen Weirob is looking for a slightest possibility of her surviving, but she cannot find anything that will prove that she, as Gretchen, will live to see another day. Weirob is not looking for any hope, only one proof that can show that her survival is possible, but can’t seem to be persuaded. I’m going to argue that Gretchen Weirob argument is valid. (67 words) Weirob believes that personal identity is consisting of combination of a person’s thoughts, memories, feelings, and experiences. According to her: “Survival means that tomorrow …show more content…
Weirob does not accept that, she thinks that would be an extrapolation, compare to other billions observed. Here where Weirob’s argument would be objected. She does not agree that the identity can be personal, she thinks personal identity is the way other’s identify each other. She excludes the actual personal point of view. One can fool everyone and receive a facial and voice reconstruction, change mannerism to have others identify him/her as some one who is not one. This phony person will still be personally identify as him/herself, but to others he will be miss-identified. In the case of brain transplant Weirob agrees that the body with the “new” brain should have the personal identity of the “body” . She does not agrees to brain transplant procedure because of this thinking. What if we can imagine that there are parallel universe with the same Gretchen Weirob in it. Same age, same job, same body, but different memories, thoughts, and feelings. If these two can meet somehow in the same universe, according to Gretchen and everyone around, these two are two identical people, not the same person. Why can’t we apply the same principle to Miller’s example of how others perceive two Kleenex boxes to be identical. Weirob is very sensitive to the word Miller uses
Personal identity, in the context of philosophy, does not attempt to address clichéd, qualitative questions of what makes us us. Instead, personal identity refers to numerical identity or sameness over time. For example, identical twins appear to be exactly alike, but their qualitative likeness in appearance does not make them the same person; each twin, instead, has one and only one identity – a numerical identity. As such, philosophers studying personal identity focus on questions of what has to persist for an individual to keep his or her numerical identity over time and of what the pronoun “I” refers to when an individual uses it. Over the years, theories of personal identity have been established to answer these very questions, but the
Our identities are constantly evolving throughout our lives to adapt to certain people and environments. Lars Fr. H. Svendsen states “Self-identity is inextricably bound up with the identity of the surroundings” One’s morals and characteristics are forever changing and these self resolutions are influenced by the encompassing aspects of life such as significant events, environmental revolutions and one’s relationship with another. Due to factors sometimes beyond our control, one’s self prowess is merely an expression of their own prior experiences which conclusively preserve and maintain a state of fluctuation for one’s character. A similar concept is evident in the film ‘The Sapphires’
Albert Markovski is an environmental activist and poet. He is desperately seek for the answer of what is wrong with his life. Thus, he asks for professional help from Bernard and Vivian Jaffe, a couple who runs an existential detective agency. Bernard's blanket theory of " Everything is the same even if it's different " (IHH) seemed a little confusing to Albert in the beginning as he tries to find the answer of this theory. This theory is proven cor...
Although the concept of identity is recurrent in our daily lives, it has interpreted in various ways.
Among carpenters, it is a well-known fact that building a house upon a solid foundation is imperative. When beginning the construction of a home, the foundation is always the first step leading to success, for without it, the house will become unstable. During extreme weather, such as floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, and other conditions, a slight fault in the foundation of a home will most likely guarantee significant damage, if not complete destruction. Similar to a house, a person’s identity must rest upon a firm foundation; otherwise, it may not be capable of withstanding the ominous conditions of the world. When trials and burdens threaten to crumble people’s identities, their foundations must stand their ground and overcome the various tribulations. Although there are billions of inhabitants of the world, no two people share the same identity; rather, each person has unique memories, stories, events, and artifacts influencing who they have become. Some people’s identities may reflect a difficult childhood of discrimination, poverty, and hatred similar to the one described by Malcolm X in his article, “Nightmare.” Other people may associate with Katie Pederson and her article, “Identity,” in which they are defined through a simple artifact such as an identification card. In addition, numerous unfortunate people may struggle from the devastating effects of memory loss similar to those Floyd Skloot experienced, and they are helpless as their memories and identity slowly slip away from them. Still other people may find themselves desperately searching for acceptance and identity similar to the homeless man in Gina Berriault’s article, “Who Is It Can Tell Me Who I Am.” Unlike the homeless man and Malcolm X, I was fortuna...
Everyone has a different view on life. One's perception can significantly impact the way that he/she views the rest of the world. This perception can be both positive and negative. Perception often plays a big role in determining how one is viewed by both themselves and others. People are often judged by their appearance and their actions. However, it is things such as their personality and their character that truly define them as individuals. In Budge Wilson's "The Metaphor," Miss Hancock is faced with the fact that other individuals often overlook her. Though others may not be aware of what they are doing, their actions can greatly impact another individual throughout their lifetime. The way that one is perceived can both positively and negatively affect the way that others view them as an individual, which can greatly affect their entire life.
While I was in high school I moved from a huge public school to a small charter school. Doing this allowed me to step outside of my own surroundings and look into other options for my future. By the time I was 16 my character had started to mature causing identity achievement in my life. I was committed to making my present better so that my future would be prodigious. I knew by the time I was 16 that I wanted to be a family lawyer, but before coming to that conclusion my attention was drawn more towards teaching. As I did research on both careers and started experiencing different situation in both fields I finally was able to make my choice. From reading the text it tells you that someone with this status of identity has strong beliefs in what they want to do, they are committed to their values and goals and they follow a period of exploration (pg.315). During this journey of looking into future careers I had to do a lot of searching. When I first was developing a taste for what I wanted to do in the future I knew I loved children so I ventured out into the teaching path. I was going to a charter school at the time allowing me to intern in a third grade class. I loved it; I gave spelling tests, helped with lessons, and arts and crafts, throughout this time only being 14. In my mind this would have been an outstanding job. Being with children all day, teaching them skills that they would use in their future. It was a dream for me. But as I was exploring I had to realize that if I wanted to live the life style I have grown up in being a teacher would not grant that. The book talks about how when in the stage of identity achievement you look at the criteria of w...
Identity, an ambiguous idea, plays an important part in today’s world. To me identity can be defined as who a person is or what differentiates one person from another. Identity would be a person’s name, age, height, ethnicity, personality, and more. A quote by Anne Sexton states “It doesn't matter who my father was; it matters who I remember he was”(Anne Sexton). This quote helps me define identity because I believe it is saying that identity is what people are remembered by. When some people think of identity, words such as, uniqueness, distinctiveness, or individuality may come to mind. However, I disagree with this because when I think of identity I think of mimicry, self-consciousness, or opinions.
“It’s a blessed thing that in every stage in every age some one has had the individuality and courage enough to stand by his own convictions.” The part of me that sums up my identity best is not the adjectives given by family, or the faults I find in myself. My identity is my desire to better myself, and my passion for children. My identity is who I want to be and what I do to accomplish my goals My identity is the feelings and emotions I pour into my journal every day, and the way I feel when I do something right. My identity is not what others thing of me or what I think of myself after a bad day. My identity is the love and confidence I have in myslef, and the beauty inside.
In his 1971 paper “Personal Identity”, Derek Parfit posits that it is possible and indeed desirable to free important questions from presuppositions about personal identity without losing all that matter. In working out how to do so, Parfit comes to the conclusion that “the question of identity has no importance” (Parfit, 1971, p. 4.2:3). In this essay, I will attempt to show that Parfit’s thesis is a valid one, with positive implications for human behaviour. The first section of the essay will examine the thesis in further detail, and the second will assess how Parfit’s claims fare in the face of criticism. Problems of personal identity generally involve questions about what makes one the person one is and what it takes for the same person to exist at separate times (Olson, 2010).
What is personal identity? This question has been asked and debated by philosophers for centuries. The problem of personal identity is determining what conditions and qualities are necessary and sufficient for a person to exist as the same being at one time as another. Some think personal identity is physical, taking a materialistic perspective believing that bodily continuity or physicality is what makes a person a person with the view that even mental things are caused by some kind of physical occurrence. Others take a more idealist approach with the belief that mental continuity is the sole factor in establishing personal identity holding that physical things are just reflections of the mind. One more perspective on personal identity and the one I will attempt to explain and defend in this paper is that personal identity requires both physical and psychological continuity; my argument is as follows:
A person’s identity is shaped by many different aspects. Family, culture, friends, personal interests and surrounding environments are all factors that tend to help shape a person’s identity. Some factors may have more of an influence than others and some may not have any influence at all. As a person grows up in a family, they are influenced by many aspects of their life. Family and culture may influence a person’s sense of responsibilities, ethics and morals, tastes in music, humor and sports, and many other aspects of life. Friends and surrounding environments may influence a person’s taste in clothing, music, speech, and social activities. Personal interests are what truly set individuals apart. An individual is not a puppet on the string of their puppet-master, nor a chess piece on their master’s game board, individuals choose their own paths in life. They accomplish, or strive to accomplish, goals that they have set for themselves throughout their lifetime. Individuals are different from any other individual in the world because they live their own life rather than following a crowd of puppets. A person’s identity is defined by what shaped it in the first place, why they chose to be who they are, and what makes them different from everybody else in the world. I feel that I have developed most of my identity from my own dreams, fantasies, friends, and idols.
The fifth stage, according to Erik Erikson psychoanalytic theory of development is the Identity Vs Identity confusion. The stage occurs during adolescence in the ages between 12 to 18 years. At this stage, the adolescents try to find a sense of personal and self-identity by intensely exploring their personal goals, beliefs, and values (McLeod, 2017). Notably, the adolescence is between childhood and adulthood. Thus, their mind is between the morality learned during childhood and the ethics they are trying to develop into adulthood. The transitioning from childhood to adulthood is the most important development for a person because the individual is becoming independent and is focusing on the future regarding career, relationships, families
I support the notion that our experiences are what makes us who we are and shapes the person our future selves will be. It is challenging to claim that both the West Coast being and East Coast being are the same if they are experiencing different things due to their environmental variances. Since we are products of our experiences, the different circumstances that the West Coast and East Coast persons are put in would result in dissimilar memories and may produce skewed thoughts, opinions, and actions that contrast the other person’s. The moment the West Coast person is created, they become their own being because they are experiencing something completely different from the person on the East Coast at that particular moment. Despite starting off with the same mental basis at the time of creation as the East Coast person, the being on the West Coast is immediately shaped in a different way by their experiences on the West Coast, which leads to the conclusion that both beings cannot be the same if they are experiencing different
Self-identity is one of the main themes of philosophy throughout its history. In general, “self-identity” is a term that means thoughts or feelings with which you distinguish you from others, and we use the term in ordinary conversation without a solid concept of “self-identity”. However, arguing about self-identity philosophically, there arise many questions: whether there is any essence of yourself, whether you are the same person as you when you were a baby, whether memory or experience makes you, and what is “self-identity.” To solve these questions, many philosophers have been arguing the topic “self identity” for so long.