Topics
logic
business
natural world
culture
politics
history
bicycle
observation
argument
Author Favorites
sociology
ethics
identity
pascal's wager
knowledge
invention
global warming
psychology
ontology
economics
philosophy
cyberculture
science
free will
memetics
atheism
Tech
epistemology
evolution
deception
design
love
humor
math
November 5th, 2007 at 7:33 am
That makes no sense, it’s just about how you define person.
But must of your comics rox anyway.
November 6th, 2007 at 11:56 pm
By that logic, there is no reason not to say that you and I are the same ‘person’ with different memories. Not that this is a bad thing, I personally like this explanation.
November 7th, 2007 at 2:20 am
Yeah, that is a pretty crazy thought too. The notion that what makes someone the same person now as tomorrow could also make them the same person as…well…another “person.”
On the other extreme is the suggestion that there is nothing that makes yesterday Thad the same person as today Thad. If this is the case then we are just a string of different people.
November 12th, 2007 at 1:58 am
I think the problem is that you have assumed a wrong definition of person. Your memories define the person that you are to a very large extent. Even if all you somehow got a new, identical body every moment, you’re still the same person because you would still make the same decisions, hold the same opinions, and remember the same things (plus one moment).
November 12th, 2007 at 11:26 am
Yeah, that is a good point. I have heard of many well reason explanations that define a person by their memories. However, I’m not sure it matches up with our day to day definition of a person.
When we think of someone in our lives we not only think of the experiences that we have had with them but also their temperament and style of reacting to situations. One might also be able to argue that capabilities are part of our definition of a “person.”
November 18th, 2007 at 1:11 pm
I’ve never really thought too deeply into the idea, but I’ve thought and heard that before. When you think about it there has been an infinite amount of animals of varying species on this planet. On some level every being on this planet is changing at every level that one exists, chemical, atomic, subatomic, etc. There is an infinite amount of deaths and births. It’s like our consciousness is the personification of evolution. Learning, memorizing, relearning, adapting, etc. The person who made the mistake and touched the hot stove, is not the same person who remembers not to the second time around. I think it really shows how much of a shell our body really is, and how connected to each other we really are. Just think about love. We have the ability to love someone with all of our being for a lifetime. Even though we have completely changed many times over.
July 4th, 2009 at 6:12 am
It makes perfect sense to me; at fifty, I’m certainly not the same person I was at twenty. I don’t make the same decisions or have the same outlook. Everyone changes over time, and in a very real sense cannot remain the same person.
August 19th, 2009 at 12:34 am
This is one of my main philosophies for life. I love it and it helps me make a lot of my decisions. It’s practically a religion for me.
July 8th, 2011 at 11:45 am
I would definitely subscribe to this idea. The chemical tunover of a human body being 7-10 years, we are just waves of information travelling through matter, time and space, with memories…