Notes for 11/6/2025

 

11/6/2025

[Philosophy Club every Tuesday at 5:00pm in CAS 436 ("The Cave")]

[Challenge for today: Try to think of (and possibly ask) at least one question.]

Have you ever (to your knowledge) had a false memory?

 

The “chain of stages” account of diachronic identity across changes:

 

The basis for thinking that X is identical at different times despite changes occurring between these times is that these changes occur in increments where at each change, the majority of X’s properties remain unchanged.

 

 

For Locke, personal identity over time works the same way, but with personality traits instead of material parts.

 

Memory is especially important for Locke’s view.

 

Locke says that identity is preserved so long as one’s consciousness can be extended backwards. Most commentators interpret this as memory.

 

I am the same person today as yesterday because I can remember things from yesterday as having happened from a first-person point of view.

 

Why does Locke reject material theories of personal identity?

 

Body switch thought experiment

 

Why does Locke reject the soul theory of personal identity?

 

a)         Souls are not perceived (empiricist theory of knowledge)

b)        “Soul wipe” thought experiment

c)         (Indirectness of substance)

 

 

Objection to Locke by Thomas Reid

 

Boy > Officer > General

Boy || General

General = Officer

Officer = Boy

General != Boy

 

 

 

 

Student > Newlywed > Victim

 

Newlywed = Student

Victim = Student

Victim != Newlywed

 

Amnesia, Alzheimer’s, Brain damage, ….

 

“Ben King” case

 

Implicit vs explicit memory

 

Real vs false memories

 

 

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