Subjects:
>create who the person becomes in the future. Memories of lessons learned,
>emotional trauma, family experiences, all assist in developing a person.
>Although everyone changes in time our memories can be said to be the only
>thing that truly stays with us through our lifetime, even though we may not
>remember every single detail through out our life.
>Our physical body changes over time and makes it difficult to identify a
>person physically after a period of time. The brain is the main central
>organ in our body that contains our memories, does having the same brain in
>our physical body identifies us? Memories, contained in our brain, can be
>forgotten or deteriorate with age and it can be argued that it is also
>difficult to use memories as a basis for identity. Or does our soul identify
>a personís identity, but what exactly is a soul?
>Who am I? How would I attempt to describe my identity? What makes me, me?
>Pojman summarized Lockeís idea on personhood, The mental characteristics
>(ability to reflect or introspect) constituted personhood. Personal identity
. . .
>of the prison would those memories slowly come back to the criminal. So the mother believes this man in front of her is indeed her
>son, who has suffered a traumatic event, and the mom does not even have
>knowledge of the aristocrat. But the soul alone, in the change of bodies,
>would scarce to any one but him that makes the south the man, be enough to
>make the same man. The brain criterion could be a basis for identity, but then facts of brain damage or tumors that would change the brain and would it then change the person. If the criminal was release out of prison 10 years
>later and then saw his family and friends and his house in which he was
>raised. After
>conversation with her son about family and past history, the mother might
>believe that this person in front of her could not possibly be her son,
>because he does not recall his past.
>But if now the person does not have memories of the crime and only of the
>life of being an aristocrat, should he be responsible for the consequences
>of another man? If a court judge does not believe the story of the
>aristocratís soul entering the body of the criminal and still believes he is
>the criminal then he would have to continue to serve the sentence in jail. After all, to everyone else beside himself, he was
>still the criminal in his physical bodily form. The memory of a person can be forgotten or mistaken,
>but logic can support the memory criterion. If the criminal still
>contained his brain then would he still have the memories of the criminal?
>So maybe the soul does not contain any memories at all or have any use to
>us.
>As the aristocrat stays in jail and his personality changes due to the
>circumstances, and becomes a person just like the other cell mates after
>five years is the man still the aristocrat or is he now the criminal?
>
>Or is it the fact that he had to adjust to the new body that his soul was
>placed in? Realizing that if he could not live the old life of the
>aristocrat in a jail cell, that in order to survive he allowed himself to
>change into the criminal. We can call this
>the psychological states criterion of personal identity.
>Suppose there is a gallant officer who at age twenty-five is a hero in a
>battle and who remembers getting a flogging in his childhood. (287)
>
>The memory criterion or the psychological states criterion of personal
>identity provides that identity is based that our memory stays with us over
>a lifetime. Or is
>he just creating a new memory based on photographs and stories that his
>mother was telling him?
Our physical body can deteriorate, and look very different from when we were younger.
Essay's Topics
All research is for reference purposes only.