Personal Identity Philosophical Views Term paper

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Personal Identity: Philosophical Views

Tim V Kolton

Alan Watts once said, "Trying to define yourself is like trying to bite

your own teeth." The task of personal identity is to define a quality of a

human which makes him or her a unique self. The person whose identity is in

question must realize themselves, and other people must identify this person.

In other words, what makes John unique from Bob? One must consider both

internal (mind) and external (body) perspectives. There are several general

philosophical theories of this identity problem. In the following paragraphs

one will find the body theory, soul theory, and a more detailed explanation of

the conscious theory.

One theory of personal identity is known as the body theory. This is

defined as a person X has a personal identity if and only if they have the same

body Y. However there are two problems with this definition. The first is

qualitative. It is necessary to have the same body, but if that body is changed,

is one the same person? Someone's body is surely different at age 40 than at

age 4. 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 someone's

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, someone's 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. 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...

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