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What makes me me ?

What makes me me ?. Plan. Overview of personal identity issues ‘Multiple Personality Disorder’ (or, ‘Dissociative Identity Disorder’). What makes you you ?. TIME. Overview of process. Starting point. Abstraction. Distinction. Thought experiments. 3 distinctions. Substance & Property.

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What makes me me ?

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  1. What makes me me?

  2. Plan • Overview of personal identity issues • ‘Multiple Personality Disorder’ (or, ‘Dissociative Identity Disorder’)

  3. What makes you you? TIME

  4. Overview of process Starting point Abstraction Distinction Thought experiments

  5. 3 distinctions Substance & Property Accidental & Essential Numerical & Qualitative

  6. My Essence • If my essence is X, then • (1) any entity which has X is me, • and • (2) any entity which does not have X is not me. Sufficient condition Necessary condition

  7. Working, by fluke? • A theory may seem right under some scenarios • Need to test it with extreme scenarios to check its foundations • Use of thought experiments • Isolate variables by making assumptions

  8. Case 1: Growing up Were you once a baby?

  9. Case 2: Forgetful grandmother • At dinner, you discover the person who seems like your grandmother has completely lost her memory • Is she still the mother of your parent?

  10. Case 3: The Prince & the Robber Robber Mind Prince Mind • Who is responsible for the robberies committed by the robber?

  11. Testing a philosophical view Philosophical View Observation/Reflection Hypothesis/Prediction Compare

  12. BIG picture • What is my essence? My body My psyche My soul

  13. My essence is my body • My entire body • Whatever is physically continuous with my body at the time of conception • My brain

  14. “I am my body (or, a part of it)” 98% of the atoms in our body get replaced every year

  15. I am what is physically continuous with my body at birth • “I can survive the • gradual replacement • of my body parts.”

  16. The tale of 2 carpets You I

  17. Gradual replacement You I

  18. My essence is my brain • Seems to account for our concerns about brain transplants • Much of what seems most tied to a person’s identity is dependent on her brain

  19. Case 3: The Prince & the Robber Robber Mind Prince Mind • Who is responsible for the robberies committed by the robber?

  20. Is your brain really your essence? • or is your brain just the way to secure your psyche, which may be your true essence? Preservation of essence Preservation of psyche Preservation of essence Preservation of psyche

  21. My essence is my psyche • Memory • Interests, preferences & character

  22. Case 2: Forgetful grandmother • At dinner, you discover the person whom you considered your grandmother has completely lost her memory • Is she still the mother of your parent?

  23. False memories • Recently, someone claims he remembers writing Hamlet • Shakespeare wrote the Hamlet • So is he Shakespeare?

  24. ??? Same person Real memory

  25. What is personality? • Physical habits? • Psychological habits?

  26. Case 1: Growing up Were you once a baby?

  27. Any psychological changes at all? TIME

  28. My essence is my soul • Souls are invisible • How do we tell if you are you? • We can see your body • We can experience your psyche • BUT how do we tell whether your soul has changed?

  29. Big picture • What is my essence? My body My psyche My soul Necessary? The tale of 2 carpets The prince & the robber Forgetful granny Personality changes Difficulties Duplication problem Sufficient?

  30. My essence: what is sufficient? • ‘I’ = body/psyche/soul • + [anything else?]

  31. Instant cloning Instant Cloning Machine

  32. The duplication problem • For any proposed essence E, it seems possible for a perfect duplicate of E to exist • What then differentiates E from E-duplicate?

  33. The duplication problem • Solution 1? • Duplicates may not exist • Solution 2? • Individuality is a primitive notion • Cannot be explained in other terms

  34. Individuality • ‘Thisness’ or Haecceity • In some cases, the difference between X and Y is ultimate • A thisness is the property of being identical with a particular individual, such that onlythat particular individual can have that property

  35. Review • Key concepts • What makes me me? • Body theory • Psyche theory • Soul theory • What is necessary? • What is sufficient?

  36. Why does personal identity matter? • Personal responsibility • Personal authority • Personal survival

  37. A matter of Will Euthanize? Should we respect the Will? Use of property? Severe Amnesiac Normal person Normal person In vegetative state

  38. “Dissociative Identity disorder” Psychiatry meets Philosophy

  39. Christine Beauchamp • Nervous, ailing, impressionable • Neglected by mother she adored, abused by father • Suffered 3 shocks in 1893 • Consulted with Dr Morton Prince

  40. The Saint: Deeply religious, morbidly conscientious.. B1 B1a Less reserved

  41. The Saint: Deeply religious, morbidly conscientious.. ‘She’ • Despises B1 • ‘Stupid, half-asleep’ B1 “Merry, irresponsible, child of nature” Sally B1a • Seems to know the thoughts and actions of B1 & B1a • Claims to have existed as co-conscious person from B1’s early childhood

  42. The Idiot: • No memory of what happened since trauma in 1893 (6 years back) • Impatient, aggressive, resentful B I B IV Sally B IVa B Ia

  43. B IV Sally B I B IVa B Ia B II 1893- Sober, responsible, well-balanced • Claims to be both BI & BIV • Has virtues of both, but not their vices 1904

  44. ‘Multiple Persons’ • No continuity of consciousness • Lacking knowledge & memory relations • Radically different personality, each complex & consistent internally • Different characteristics, allergies, bodily responses • Each is an intentional system • Rational, conscious, self-conscious, subject of moral consideration

  45. ‘Multiple Persons’ • 1st person perspective shows self-understanding as person • Awareness of unique identity, concerned with non-existence • Alternate & Simultaneous existence • Not just linear temporal existence, but co-existence

  46. 1 body, many persons?

  47. ‘1 Person’ 2 senses of person/personality Reality meaning Appearance meaning • Persona, mask • How you present yourself to others • Person in the numerical sense • The true self

  48. Confusion “we should not confuse the appearance of natural persons with the reality of natural persons, and that we should appeal to psychology, biology, and physiology, not ordinary experience, to distinguish them.” - Lizza

  49. What’s the real self? Morton Prince: “A normal self must be able to adjust itself physiologically to its environment, otherwise all sorts of perverted reactions of the body arise, along with psychological stigmata (amnesia, suggestibility, etc.), and it becomes a sick self. Common experience shows that, philosophize as you will, there is an empirical self which may be designated the real normal self. However, I shall put aside this question for the present and assume that there is a normal self, a particular Miss Beauchamp, who is physiologically as well as psychologically best adapted to any environment.”

  50. Natural kinds • There is a distinction between the natural & artificial • We are familiar with natural persons and can refer to them to discern the unnatural • Natural persons are not like BI, BIV, Sally

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