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Summary Of The Problem Of Personal Identity

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In chapter 5, “The Problem of Personal Identity” from Problems of Philosophy, authors James and Stuart Rachels discuss the everlasting wonders of what makes you, you. Rachels speaks about the question, of who we are and how we define our identity. The chapter discusses theories that philosophers have come up with to help us get a better understanding of what defines us and gives us an identity. The authors described the theories like The Bundle-Theory, The Same-Body Theory, and The Memory Theory and examined the argument and counter argument.
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Each individual has his or her own answer to a question “who am I.” From time to time, they will constantly change their answer as they are exposed to different environment and the answer will be varying since everyone has his or her unique life story. In Susan Griffin, Gloria Anzaldua, and Alison Bechdal’s essays, the authors tried to achieve the true expression of identity through the relationship with the labels created by the society and the other people most time family members. In these essays and comic strips, the authors emphasize how the relationship with those closed to them, such as their family members, can influence shaping their identity. In “Our Secret”, Griffin illustrates Himmler’s childhood who was a prominent Nazi figure

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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.

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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.

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How others see you is influenced by material, social, and physical constraints. This causes a tension between how much control you have in constructing your own identity and how much control or constraint is exercised over you. How we see ourselves and how others see us differ in many ways, but is an important factor of our identity. “A Lesson Before Dying”,

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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.

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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”.

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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).

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Throughout my life I have come from and created a few identities for myself. Perhaps, the most dominant identities that have been apart of my life are being an athlete and being a family orientated man. In this paper I will write about how my identities have shaped my life. First off I believe my biggest identity is being an athlete.

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In Aldous Huxley’s book, Brave New World, an unimaginable dystopia has been created. The World State was formed on three principles: community, identity, and stability. These three principles dictate how members of this society live and interact with one another. In modern society, there is an emphasis on the importance of motherhood, commitment, and countless other ideals that are rejected in the World State. Throughout the novel, the principle of community is shown with castes and hypnopaedic slogans, such as everybody belongs to everybody else.

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Are persons essentially persons? Personal identity is a much-disputed debate within metaphysics and is still a cause of concern for many philosophers because it raises questions about what we essentially are and what being a person, persisting from one day to the next, necessarily consists of. In this essay I discuss the very influential view from Locke, who argues that persons are essentially persons. He concludes that personal identity is a matter of psychological continuity.

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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.

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Introduction The concept of identity has been a notion of significant interest not just to sociologists and psychologists, but also to individuals found in a social context of perpetually trying to define themselves. Often times, identities are given to individuals based on their social status within a certain community, after the assessment of predominant characteristics that said individual has. However, within the context of an ethnicity, the concept identity is most probably applied to all members of the ethnical group, and not just one individual. When there is one identity designated for the entire group, often times the factor of “individuality” loses its significance, especially when referring to the relationship between the ethnic

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Socially constructed identities are utilized to identify who we are and to oppress individuals, especially if they do not conform to those identities or are coming from an intersecting identity. Sometimes on the journey to establish identity and sense of self battles are faced in terms of oppression, acceptance, and silence. All of these variables, in accordance with intersectionality, can make it very difficult for someone to identify themselves or for others to identify them. When an individual comes from an intersecting identity, just like in Zami and Redefining Realness, they often are searching for acceptance and struggle with silence as the origin of their oppression is not as apparent if that intersectionality was not present or as potent.

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Paul- Michel Foucault was a French philosopher also known as a historian of systems of thoughts whose influence extended across a broad array of disciplines especially in the humanities and social sciences and a social critic. He created his own title when he was promoted to professorship at one of the most prestigious colleges in France “College de France” in 1970. He is perhaps best known for his ruminations on power, self identity, epistemology, and the evolution of systems of thought and meaning. He is often described as post-structuralist or post modernist, however Foucault himself rejected such titles, preferring to analyse their significance rather than identifying with them.

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Self-Concepts Based on the theoretical foundations of social identity theory by Tajfel and Turner (1986). The theory postulated that individuals’ personal and social identities mainly derive its behavior for self-esteem and self-evaluation. It was also posited that individuals’ social identities such as organization, religious affiliations, etc. mainly develops its self-concept and behavior. Therein, the higher the salience social affiliations, the probability of becoming self-satisfied and improved self-esteem increases (Shamir et al., 1993).

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