Similarities Between John Perry's A Dialogue On Personal Identity And Immortality

In John Perry’s A Dialogue on Personal Identity and Immortality a seasoned philosopher, Gretchen, is on her death bed and looks to her good friend Sam to persuade her about the possibility of survival after death. Throughout the conversation, various theories of personal identity arise. Two of these being soul theory and bodily continuity theory. In this paper, I will first explain the problem with personal identity and define quantitative identity while explaining its relevance. Then I will attempt to breakdown Sam’s soul theory and show how Gretchen counter argues it with bodily continuity theory. I will wrap it up by giving reasoning to which theory better explains the meaning behind a person existing and persisting through time. The main problem with personal identity is that it is a constant debate over the defining characteristics that make an individual unique. Gretchen starts this debate with first seeking clarification between the terms “identical” and “exactly similar”. They use the Kleenex box example to illustrate the difference. If the box is burned to ash, you will not find an identical one at home, you will find an exactly similar one with the same contents and makeup as the original, however it is not identical. When talking about personal identity, Gretchen describes identical

Sam admits that he would recognize the river by certain characteristics of the water that stay consistent. Gretchen brings light to the fact that it indeed is always different water flowing from different places at all times, and compares it to the possibilities that souls do the same thing by running through different bodies. “The immaterial soul which you think is lodged in my body might change from day to day…replaced each time by another soul psychologically similar. You cannot see it or touch it, so how would you know”