As some of you know, I am taking a philosophy class this semester. As much as I would love to tell you about every little thing that goes on during that 2.5 hours, I can’t bring myself to do it. However, I can tell you that every couple of weeks we have to write a “reaction paper” for the chapter we just read. Tonight, I finished my second paper which is due tomorrow. Since this particular paper has to do with personal identity, I figured I ought to share it with you. Be sure to let me know what you think.

Reading Reaction #2

In Rauhut’s chapter five, we concentrate on the four theories of personal identity. What do we believe personal identity is and how do we relate it to our very being? This is a question that can only be answered by discussing the Illusion, body, soul and memory theories proposed in the reading on page 117.

The illusion theory says that we can never be the same over a period of time and “to think that something in us remains the same is an illusion.” Because our physical bodies change minute by minute, there is no persistance to our self and what we recognize as our “identity”. This illusion of persistence doesn’t have to be limited to physical body, but the mind as well. As you live your life, you are constantly learning or forgetting things and your thoughts wander in and out of reality. By virtue of this, we can say that we are not the same person we were when the day started or even from the time our mind started to wander.

For most of us, the thought of not being the same person we were five minutes ago doesn’t make sense. We have to be the same person because we are in the same body or because we have the same soul. As a consequence, Rauhut introduces two theories that explain the “self as substance.” The body and soul theories take the view of being the same person if we continue to have the same body or soul, respectively. Since we can all relate to a body as a person, the body theory makes the most sense to us. When dealing with personal identity, it is fair to say that we are dealing with the same person on a regular basis if that person is in the same body. Seeing that the soul theory is similar to the body theory, by interchanging body and soul, this assumption can explain the soul theory as well.

The final theory Rauhut acquaints us with deals with memory as identifying ones self. He explains that we are the same person as we were in the past because we have memories of events in our past. For example, I know that I am the same person I was ten years ago because I can remember that I was serving in the military as a computer programmer. Since I still know how to do that job, I must be the same person I was ten years ago. I might not look the same and I might not be in the same physical condition, but I am indeed the same person.

In determining our personal identity, the memory theory seems to cover all the bases for a continuous self. Despite some minor flaws, it explains who we “are” better than the illusion, body or soul theories. However since philosophers are still debating the question of personal identity and “there is no clear-cut solution”, is it possible to really know ourselves, let alone anybody else?

For the record, here are the stats from Google Docs for my “piece”:

If you are wondering about the image here, it is one of the main characters in the movie The Last Dragon, The Shogun of Harlem. You can find out more on this mySpace profile or on iMDB. I would strongly suggest that you rent this movie.