What is a human being?

The Problem of Personal Identity What is a human being?

Do we always remain the same during our life? • There are 4 responses to this question • Illusion theory • Body theory • Soul theory • Memory theory

Illusion theory of Personal Identity • According to the illusion theory, there is no self that persists through time. We change from one moment to the next and turn constantly in to a new person. To think that something in us remains the same is an illusion.

The case for Illusion Theory • Humans undergo continuous qualitative change • Our bodies are from one minute to the next gaining and losing physical material • Every 7 years our entire physical make up has changed • Empirical evidence points to the idea there is no permanent or unchanging self • Personal identity is an illusion

David Hume (1711-1776) • In The Treatise on Human Nature argues we cannot observe any permanent self • ‘…the mind is s a kind of theatre, where several perceptions successively make appearance; pass, re-pass, glide away, and mingle in a variety of postures and situations’ • This is known as Hume’s ‘Bundle Theory’

Heraclitus (535-475BCE) • First to state that everything in the universe (including ourselves) undergoes permanent change • Put forward the famous idea….’It is not possible to step into the same river twice….it scatters and again comes together, and approaches and recedes’ • It is tempting to think of our selves in terms of a river

William James (1842-1910) • Agrees with the principle of our selves as a constantly changing river • He writes ‘Our consciousness is in constant change…consciousness flows. A river or stream is the metaphor by which it is most naturally described’

Therefore • If our bodies undergo permanent change as well as our minds it seems plausible to conclude that the idea of a permanent self that persists through time is indeed a convenient illusion

Buddhist teachings support this idea • Belief in a permanent self is the main source of suffering • They believe in Anicca – The belief that nothing stays the same • Therefore Anatta – The belief that there is no self. Self is an illusion • Christmas Humphreys former president of the Buddhist society ‘…All that exists, from a mole to a mountain, from a thought to an empire, passes through the same cycle of existence i.e. birth, growth, decay and death…the law of change applies equally to the ‘soul’. There is no principle in an individual which is immortal and unchanging’

Problems • Mainly pragmatic • If I am changing and my ‘self’ now will not be around in 10 years why bother planning for the future

Body Theory o f Personal Identity • The most intuitive theory • Most compatible with common sense • As long as we deal with the same body, we deal with the same person • Although our body goes through changes we are numerically dealing with the same physical body

Example • Jenny the 35 year old mother of Jacob has a serious car accident and is seriously injured. In order to keep her alive doctors have to remove her uninjured brain from her skull and transplant it into the body of a 25 year old African American woman recently dead from a brain tumour. The operation is a success. In this situation would you tell Jacob his mother was still alive

The case of Hannibal Lecter • Most of us subscribe to body theory • Detectives in seeking to prove the man they have in custody is the serial killer Hannibal Lecter attempt to prove this by comparing DNA samples found at the scene of a crime with the DNA of the man they have in jail • This principle is based on the idea that same body is the same person

Soul Theory of Personal Identity • Similar to body theory in the sense it tries to link personal identity to an enduring entity – the soul • Same soul = same person • Easily explains life after death • Brain stops, heart stops the non physical soul continues to exist • The soul is immaterial, non physical, an entity outside time and space, a perfect essence in an imperfect body • Linked to Plato’s concept of the soul and it’s yearning to be released from the imperfect physical body into the realms of the perfect ‘forms’ or ‘ideas’

Memory Theory of Personal Identity • John Locke first to develop a version of the memory theory • ‘For since consciousness always accompanies thinking, and it is that, that makes everyone to be, what he calls ‘self’; and thereby distinguishes himself from all other thinking things, in this alone consists personal identity…as far as this consciousness can be extended backwards to any past action or thought so far reaches the identity of that person’ • We are connected to the past as long as it is somehow present within us

Supporting evidence • Imagine you are at a school reunion 20 years later and you wanted to know whether someone was the same person you remembered 20 years ago. All you need to do is have a conversation with that person and talk about past memories from school. If the person remembers those events it seems logical to conclude it is in fact the same person.

Problems • Total amnesia • It is reasonable to say that a person suffering from complete amnesia has lost their sense of self and is no longer the same person • Therefore personal identity is dependent on psychological continuity

Final Remarks • There is no clear cut solution

What is a human being?