what are persons?
what features what makes
Introduction to Metaphysics must a thing have something the
same thing as that
in virtue of being
a person? person?
Alexander Bird
what features
What are Persons? must a thing have
in virtue of being
that person?
material substance thinking substance material substance
immaterial soul
thinking substance
transmigration of souls
As the embodied soul continuously passes, in this body, from
boyhood to youth to old age, the soul similarly passes into
essence of persons another body at death. (Bhagavad Gita)
what is it for something what is it for something
how many people what am I?
to be a person? to be the same thing
are there?
as some person?
personhood question persistence question population question constitution question
“A is the same as B” ?
same thing same qualities
same thing same qualities
“A is the very same thing as B” “A has just the same qualities as B” no persistence through change
same thing same qualities
George Orwell is the same Jean and Jane are the same
no perfectly similar objects
(person) as Eric Blair (they are identical twins)
(but what about electrons etc?)
The ship wherein Theseus and the youth of Athens
returned had thirty oars, and was preserved by the
Athenians down even to the time of Demetrius
Phalereus, for they took away the old planks as they
decayed, putting in new and stronger timber in their
place, insomuch that this ship became a standing
example among the philosophers, for the logical
question of things that grow; one side holding that
the ship remained the same, and the other
contending that it was not the same.
this ship is the same as ? or
Woolf ‘Babe’ Barnato in
Old Number One
Le Mans 1929
Tim Birkin in The Bentley Boys
Old Number One Wally Hassan, Jack Dunfee, Woolf Barnato, Stan Ivernee
Le Mans 1929
some questions
1. Brain transplant - who is who when there is a brain
transplant?
2. Teletransportation - could you be teleported and survive
3. Are you an animal?
4. Reincarnation - could you be reincarnated?
Brooklands 500 5. Where am I?
1932 6. Might you not be a person one day?
7. Might you one day not be able to think?
8. Might you one day be no longer conscious?
Brain transplant Brain transplant
Jane Mary
Brain transplant Brain transplant
which is Mary would you prefer
and which is Jane? to start as Jane
or as Mary?
Jane’s body Mary’s body Jane’s body Mary’s body
+ + + +
Mary’s brain Jane’s brain Mary’s brain Jane’s brain
Teletransportation
Are you an animal?
Is the person that you are a member
of the animal species Homo Sapiens?
Reincarnation
Where am I?
Is reincarnation possible in principle? Your head is in Wales; your neck, torso, legs etc.
are in England.
Could a reincarnated person have
memories of two previous lives?
Where are you?
Where am I? Where am I?
Is rational thought necessary and/or
personhood sufficient for personhood?
What are the necessary and sufficient conditions for
something to be a person? If necessary infants and the mentally ill are not persons
If sufficient robots, smart chimps, etc, could be persons
e.g. is rational thought necessary and/or sufficient for persons?
are persons essentially persons?
If S is a person, is there a possible world where S is not a person?
are persons animals?
same being (animal)
Aristotle: man is a rational animal
(rationality: necessary but not sufficient for personhood)
period as person
same lump of bronze
lump of bronze
period as statue
co-located but not identical
statue
persistence of persons
animal
mental physical
‘psychological criterion’ ‘somatic criterion’
co-located but not identical
identity is identity is
psychological bodily
person
continuity continuity
Commissurotomy
body X body Y
After the brain transplant,
the person who had body X now has body Y?
are there facts of the matter about identity over time?
body X primary entities are time-slices (temporal stages)
person A
body Y body Z
perdurantism
has body Y and body Z
has neither Y nor body Z perduring objects are sums of time-slices
person A?
has body Y, but not body Z
has body Z, but not body Y sphere = sphere-at-t0 + sphere-at-t1 + sphere-at-t2 + . . . .
time time