Phill 211 1st EditionExam # 2 Study Guide “Divided Minds and the Nature of Persons”Personal Identity- Two types of identity: quantitative and numerical o When two things look identical, they have the same characteristics o The question or issue of personal identity is one of numerical identityo Personal identity is constitutive of our understanding of certain emotions. For instance, the idea of regret requires personal identity - Importance of personal identityo We are concerned about OUR futureo Personal identity is closely ties to issues of punishment and justice - What is that which makes us numerically identical over time? Not one answer, but four:o Sameness of matter: if X’s matter is the same as Y’s matter, then X and Y are numerically identicalo Soul: If X’s soul is the same as Y’s soul, then X and Y are numerically identicalo Spatiotemporal continuity- only one person doing the actions if only one body is thereo Psychological continuity: if there is psychological continuity between X and Y, then X and Y are numerically identical - Parfit: before we can even ask the question of personal identity, we need to understand the nature of personhoodo What are persons? Split-brain persons: two hemispheres in the brain, but if you try to pull them apart, you realize they are connected with a lot of fibers The corpus callosum is severed in order to treat severe epilepsy; the two hemispheres become separated Parfit: “if this is how such a person responds (each hand writing a different color), I would conclude that he is having two visual sensations- that he does, as he claims, see both red and blue. But in seeing each color he is not aware of seeing the other. He has two streams of consciousness, in each of which he can see only one color” Is the split-brain one person or two??- Parfit: “I believe that, in a sense, the number of persons involved isnone” Two competing theories about the nature of persons: a. Ego Theory and b. Bundle Theory - Ego theory: “a person’s continued existence cannot be explained except as the continued existence of a particular Ego, or subject ofexperience….what explains the unity of a person’s whole life is thefact that all of the experiences in this life are had by the same person, or subject of experiences” there are experiences to be had but what makes a person is the one experiencing the experiences ((subject of experience- someone is having experiences in addition to those experiences themselves))- Bundle Theory: “according to the bundle theory, we can’t explain either the unity of consciousness at any time, or the unity of a whole life, by referring to a person. Instead we must claim that there are long series of different mental states and events…each series is unified by various kinds of casual relation, such as the relations that hold between experiences and later memories of them” ((we are just a bundle of experiences))o What we are is a bundle of perceptions and experiences. Nothing less and nothing more.- Parfit is a proponent of the Bundle Theory- According to Parfit, there is no ego. There is no self over and above our experiences.- Most of us however, have certain beliefs about continued existenceover time that presuppose the truth of the Ego Theory. But since the Ego Theory is false, such beliefs are also false. - EX: teleportation: since your brain is the same, it is just like you: you remember everything that happened to you before you pressed the transport button, though it is your replica. o Is the replica produced by the teleportation machine, you orsomeone else? Parfit: since there is no you, that is simple, take the teleportation machine.  There is no you (a person) in addition to a bundle ofexperiences. You are your experiences. - 1. Egoism vs. Altruism: shall I be concerned only about myself, orabout others too? o Egoism requires personal identity. I am identical to my future self. o If, however, my future self is me only to a degree (i.e. I am not identical but only psychologically connected to my future self, then egoism loses much of its theoretically support- 2. Fear of death: if I am not identical to my future self, should I be afraid of death?- Does this mean that we are not accountable for our actions? Parfit disagrees. 3/3/2015Free Will and Determinism- Free will = the capacity to act freely; the capacity to choose one action (or one course of action) from various alternatives or the ability to have done (or acted) otherwise- Three cases of robbery: due to hypnotization, due to excessive drinking, because that’s who you are o The question is: should you be arrested in all three cases? Not the first one because you weren’t in control, in the second case you chose to drink therefore yes and in the second one it is clearly your fault - Having free will the author of one’s own actions- praise, moral responsibility, friendship, love {you want someone to be your friend because they choose so, not because they are forced}- The importance of free will: “we all believed that we have free will. How could we not? Renouncing freedom would mean no longer planning for the future, for why make plans if you are not free to change what will happen? It would mean renouncing morality, for only those who act freely deserve blame or punishment. Without freedom, we march along pre-determined paths. - Free will must exist vs. free will cannot exist – paradoxo If you break the law, you get your free will taken away (aka you go to jail) but you don’t necessarily have to break the law or follow the law, is this still free will?o Every decision we make we can trace it back to why we made ito Why can’t there be free will? Reasonable belief (not certain that it is true or false): every event has a cause. There are no uncaused events Better formulation: every event is necessitated by a set of antecedent events and the laws of nature (determinism) o Clarification Determinism doesn’t mean predictability It can be true that every event has a cause without also being true that we can predict every future evento Determinism threatens free will “from the scientific pov human choices and behavior are just another part of the natural world. Like the seasons, planets, plants and animals, our actions are studyable, predictable, explainable, controllable. It is hard to say when, if ever, scientists will learn enough about what makes humans tick in order to predict