ipl-logo

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

1196 Words5 Pages

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 …show more content…

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”

Show More
Related
115 Words | 1 Pages

In the John Perry’s Dialogue on Personal Identity and Immortality, “The Third Night”, Weirob reveals her point of view about her brain being transferred to another body. She disagrees with the idea that she will be the same person. In the “The Third Night” Miller and Cohen meet with Gretchen as she prepares for her eventual body demise. Miller has already given up trying to persuade her. Cohen, however, suggests that a transplant similar to a woman in California named Julia North.

Read More
773 Words | 4 Pages

In “A Dialogue on Personal Identity and Immortality”, Gretchen Weirob and Sam Miller conduct a philosophical debate about the possibility of a continued existence after death. Weirob argues that she herself cannot exist after death because her identity is composed of her body, rationality, and consciousness. In Derek Parfit’s “Personal Identity” he ponders how the concept of identity works, and how the true nature of our identity affects some of the most important questions we have about our existence. I believe that Velleman did a better job of exploring the idea of identity than Weirob did.

Read More
1250 Words | 5 Pages

INTRODUCTION: This paper will argue that in John Perry 's “A Dialogue on Personal Identity and Immortality”, despite Weirob being correct in her belief that personal identity is not purely represented by the immaterial/unobservable soul, personal identity is the product of the integration of the material and immaterial experience of an individual. (50) EXPOSITION: Perry 's “A Dialogue...”, features Gretchen Weirob, a philosophy professor, coming to terms with her own mortality after suffering life-threatening injuries from a motorcycle accident. Two friends come to chat with Weirob, and the three engage in a debate over how to qualify personal identity and the possibility of identity existing beyond death of the physical body.

Read More
721 Words | 3 Pages

Comparing Identities “In the social jungle of human existence, there is no feeling of being alive without a sense of identity.” --Erik Erickson. One’s identity is shown by their actions, thoughts, and where they place themselves in society. In the short stories “On the Sidewalk Bleeding” by Evan Hunter, “Why Weren’t You His Friends?”

Read More
888 Words | 4 Pages

Reinforced and shaped through actions and thoughts, someone’s identity can have an infinite number of possibilities. Aibileen and Celia convey the claim that a person’s past experiences can alter their present identity. First of

Read More
747 Words | 3 Pages

Personal identity has to do with being the

Read More
759 Words | 4 Pages

In academic article “Who Am I” by Beverly Daniel Tatum; she talks about the complexity of identity, which defined as a person. She describes the multiple identities of different kinds of people and their significance in the community. She illustrate the how person past, historical event, family background, experiences, and thought of person has impact on the personal identification. The concept of past, present, and future, those characterize the person identity. She explains how gander of person is the part of identity, which build identity.

Read More
594 Words | 3 Pages

In his article, “A New Look at Personal Identity,” Michael Allen Fox, argues his opinion on the feisty historic debate about physical and psychological continuity views on personal identity (Fox, 2007). He brings in his view of the “self-developed by existential philosophy” as what makes a person. He does not invalidate the original views but says that the issue of what makes a person remains a task for philosophers to investigate. Fox wants to handle the often tricky dilemma of personal identity that has been tackled by philosophers since time immemorial. He identifies some questions to solve; “Who am I?”

Read More
1423 Words | 6 Pages

The argument of whether or not a human has a soul has been argued throughout centuries. Derek Parfit discusses two separate theories of personal identity, Ego Theory and Bundle Theory. The argument of which present a more accurate account of personhood is very hard to determine. The Ego Theory has some flaws such the soul is separate from the body and is a immaterialist object within us. Bundle Theory is reinforced and proven by the split-brain case, however it can lead to the argument that there is no self.

Read More
1354 Words | 6 Pages

Derek Parfit is a British philosopher who specialises in problems of personal identity and he proposes that we separate the notions of identity and survival. He is one of the most prominent philosophers in the struggle to define the self. Parfit’s 1971 essay “Personal Identity” targets two common beliefs which are central to the earliest conversations about personal identity. The first belief is about the nature of personal identity; all questions regarding this must have an answer. Between now and any future time, it is either the case that “I shall exist or I shall not”.

Read More
581 Words | 3 Pages

Persistence is the view that persons have psychological continuity, thus, a person is the future being that inherits the mental features from that person. A person is also the past being whose mental features they have inherited. Olson refers to this question of persistence as the “traditional problem” of personal identity. The question of persistence asks what is essential and adequate for a person existing at one time to be identical with something present at another time. Therefore, Olson believes that contemporary philosophers think an answer to this question would resolve all there is to know about the metaphysics of personal identity (“An Argument for Animalism”, 613).

Read More
1092 Words | 5 Pages

Identity is something people tend to think of as consistent, however that is far from the case. The Oxford English dictionary states that the definition of identity is “ The characteristics determining who or what a person or thing is.” The allegorical novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding tackles the issue of identity while following young boys from the ages twelve and down as they struggle with remembering their identities when trapped on a deserted island. Identity is affected by the influence of society and how individuals influence society based on their identities. By looking at Lord of the Flies by William Golding, the Stanford Prison Experiment, and Sigmund Freud 's philosophical ideas, it becomes clear that identity is affected by society through peer pressure and social normalities.

Read More
1480 Words | 6 Pages

HD214 Recurrent Themes in the History of Ideas (BAJH) Topic 2: Personal Identity: Continuity through Time, Selfhood and Responsibility For the purpose of this assignment I have decided to discuss the psychological approach to personal identity. The personal identity theory questions the ideas about life and death and what happens to us after we die? Personal identity looks at the idea of a person and philosophical questions which may arise about “who am I” or “what will I become.”

Read More
1104 Words | 5 Pages

In this essay I will be comparing the identity theory to the behaviorist’s theory. Both theories are similar in the sense that they are of the monists (physicalism) view but they do vary in many other ways that I will point out in the duration of my essay. I do believe that the behaviorist theory is the better argument for reasons I will outline in this essay. The identity theory The identity theory refers to the understanding that the mind and the brain are identical.

Read More
1801 Words | 8 Pages

For many years, the issue of self-identity has been a problem that philosophers and scholars have been to explain using different theories. The question on self –identity tries to explain the concept of how a person today is different from the one in the years to come. In philosophy, the theory of personal identity tries to solve the questions who we are, our existence, and life after death. To understand the concept of self-identity, it is important to analyze a person over a period under given conditions. Despite the numerous theories on personal identity, the paper narrows down the study to the personal theories of John Locke and Rene Descartes, and their points of view on personal identity.

Read More

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

Related Topics

Open Document