New Person

7 Comments:

1. comboy Says: 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.

2. Thad Says: November 5th, 2007 at 6:50 pm

   Thank you for the compliment. With this comic I was aiming to deal with what makes one person different from another. What makes baby you the same person as adult you? Some argue that a soul exists and is the thread connecting young me to adult me. However, that has never been my favorite explanation.

3. TheRedTide Says: 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.

4. thad Says: 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.

5. AttemptingReason Says: 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).

6. thad Says: 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.”

7. Will Says: 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.

Leave a Reply