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Distract yourself for a few minutes by thinking about this test:
http://www.philosophersnet.com/games/identity.htm
I'll tell you mine if you'll tell me yours in the comments.
Edit: I have posted my answers in the comments, so don't look at the comments until you've done the test!
Edit 2: The thread link where I got this test.
Edit 3: For those of you with trouble, I was able to copy and paste the relevant text, but I did not select all, I only selected up until before the "Recommended Reading" section.
Edit 4: For those of you STILL with trouble, just email your answer to me and I will paste it in with just your first name, or anonymously if you are somehow worried about the internets.
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Staying Alive
ReplyDeleteCongratulations! According to one theory of personal identity, you have survived!
You chose:
Round 1: It's the spaceship for me!
Round 2: Let the virus do its worst!
Round 3: Freeze me!
There are basically three kinds of things which could be required for the continued existence of your self. One is bodily continuity, which actually may require only parts of the body to stay in existence (e.g., the brain). Another is psychological continuity, which requires, for the continued existence of the self, the continuance of your consciousness, by which is meant your thoughts, ideas, memories, plans, beliefs and so on. And the third possibility is the continued existence of some kind of immaterial part of you, which might be called the soul. It may, of course, be the case that a combination of one or more types of these continuity is required for you to survive.
Your choices are consistent with the view that bodily continuity is necessary for personal survival. You risk death on the spaceship, allow your mind to be messed around with by the virus and allow your soul to be destroyed so that your body (or at least your brain in a body) can have a chance of staying in existence. And it does!
But is this survival of you? Is it enough for your body to continue to exist if your personality, wishes, beliefs, desires and memories do not? Remember, opting to suffer the consequences of the virus means that now you have no memories of the person you were when you stepped into the teletransporter. So is the self really no more than a particular animal body? Many think it is, but many others think that without some kind of psychological continuity, the self cannot survive as a body alone.
How have you done compared to other people?
14853 out of 181234 people chose the same path through the scenarios as you. To date, 109332 people have followed a path through these scenarios which is consistent with at least one of the three theories of personal identity specified above, compared to 71902 people who have not.
Staying Alive
ReplyDeleteSorry! You're dead!
You chose:
Round 1: Take me to the teletransporter!
Round 2: I'll take the silicon!
Round 3: Let my body die!
Here's the problem. There are basically three kinds of things which could be required for the continued existence of your self. One is bodily continuity, which actually may require only parts of the body to stay in existence (e.g., the brain). Another is psychological continuity, which requires, for the continued existence of the self, the continuance of your consciousness, by which is meant your thoughts, ideas, memories, plans, beliefs and so on. And the third possibility is the continued existence of some kind of immaterial part of you, which might be called the soul. It may, of course, be the case that a combination of one or more types of these continuity is required for you to survive.
Your first two choices were consistent with the view that psychological continuity is necessary for survival. In Round 1, you decided to have your body zapped and rebuilt from scratch, and in Round 2 you decided to have your brain replaced by synthetic parts. Both these choices give you psychological continuity. But your last choice sees the end to your psychological continuity, since the continued existence of the soul does not provide it. So you first ended bodily continuity and then you ended psychological continuity.
Perhaps you made these choices because all along you thought that the continuity of the soul is what counts? If so, there is still a puzzle. How could teletransportation or replacing your organic body with synthetic parts ensure that your soul continues to exist? After all, the teletransporter transmits information about body states. Why would the soul follow this information? Given the lack of reasons to suppose a soul would do this, you have been pronounced dead. (Although technically speaking you haven't so much died as lost track of where your soul has gone!) However, it is conceded that the autopsy is not absolutely conclusive!
How have you done compared to other people?
34260 out of 181255 people chose the same path through the scenarios as you. To date, 109346 people have followed a path through these scenarios which is consistent with at least one of the three theories of personal identity specified above, compared to 71909 people who have not.
Staying Alive
ReplyDeleteCongratulations! According to one theory of personal identity, you have survived!
You chose:
Round 1: It's the spaceship for me!
Round 2: Let the virus do its worst!
Round 3: Freeze me!
There are basically three kinds of things which could be required for the continued existence of your self. One is bodily continuity, which actually may require only parts of the body to stay in existence (e.g., the brain). Another is psychological continuity, which requires, for the continued existence of the self, the continuance of your consciousness, by which is meant your thoughts, ideas, memories, plans, beliefs and so on. And the third possibility is the continued existence of some kind of immaterial part of you, which might be called the soul. It may, of course, be the case that a combination of one or more types of these continuity is required for you to survive.
Your choices are consistent with the view that bodily continuity is necessary for personal survival. You risk death on the spaceship, allow your mind to be messed around with by the virus and allow your soul to be destroyed so that your body (or at least your brain in a body) can have a chance of staying in existence. And it does!
But is this survival of you? Is it enough for your body to continue to exist if your personality, wishes, beliefs, desires and memories do not? Remember, opting to suffer the consequences of the virus means that now you have no memories of the person you were when you stepped into the teletransporter. So is the self really no more than a particular animal body? Many think it is, but many others think that without some kind of psychological continuity, the self cannot survive as a body alone.
How have you done compared to other people?
14854 out of 181235 people chose the same path through the scenarios as you. To date, 109333 people have followed a path through these scenarios which is consistent with at least one of the three theories of personal identity specified above, compared to 71902 people who have not.
Staying Alive
ReplyDeleteCongratulations! According to one theory of personal identity, you have survived!
You chose:
Round 1: Take me to the teletransporter!
Round 2: I'll take the silicon!
Round 3: Freeze me!
There are basically three kinds of things which could be required for the continued existence of your self. One is bodily continuity, which actually may require only parts of the body to stay in existence (e.g., the brain). Another is psychological continuity, which requires, for the continued existence of the self, the continuance of your consciousness, by which is meant your thoughts, ideas, memories, plans, beliefs and so on. And the third possibility is the continued existence of some kind of immaterial part of you, which might be called the soul. It may, of course, be the case that a combination of one or more types of these continuity is required for you to survive.
Your choices are consistent with the theory known as psychological reductionism. On this view, all that is required for the continued existence of the self is psychological continuity. Your three choices show that this is what you see as central to your sense of self, not any attachment to a particular substance, be it your body, brain or soul. However, some would say that you have not survived at all, but fallen foul of a terrible error. In the teletransporter case, for example, was it really you that travelled to Mars or is it more correct to say that a clone or copy of you was made on Mars, while you were destroyed?
How have you done compared to other people?
35586 out of 181258 people chose the same path through the scenarios as you. To date, 109348 people have followed a path through these scenarios which is consistent with at least one of the three theories of personal identity specified above, compared to 71910 people who have not.
Good luck tomorrow y'all!
ReplyDelete