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Qui-Gon GlenN7
In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is.
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Post by Qui-Gon GlenN7 on Feb 8, 2019 19:33:59 GMT
Not my favorite Philosophy subject, because it is all weird. Flat out bizarre really.
However, identity is always a problem for me when I wax philosophical, and metaphysics is the only framework to properly discuss personal identity of a person over time.
So, dear reader... Who are you? Seriously, like, who the fuck are you really?
Your body regenerates cells constantly, according to old science about every 7-10 years you have a mostly new body of new cells, that for whatever reason have mutated perfectly to match your old self with aging factors built-in. Your brain is different though - no cells are added, none are replaced. You can only damage your brain and possibly lose cells.
So, if you are older than 10yo, say, you are a brain riding around in a clone body. You will shed this clone body again and again, like a vagabond parasite.
Take the snapshot of you at birth... You don't know that person. You have no memories of this person. Who the fuck is that person? Is that really the same brain riding around in this clone shell I'm in? Am I the same guy as that baby I can't remember being? According to photos and parental accounts, yes I am. However, I have never really trusted my parents to know much about reality, so I discount their clever stories easily. As far as I know, they are just software running in my background processes.
Lewis and Leibniz and others have many times tried to make this a non-issue, by either saying that arguments about identity are absurd (Lewis) or that laws can be applied to determine identity. Fail.
Terms to learn - endurance, perdurance, persistence.
Authors to read - Lewis, Leibniz, Kim, Parfit, to start
Just worming my way through space like the weird grey matter parasite I am, constantly rebuilding my robot monkey body.
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Post by AnDromedary on Feb 8, 2019 20:48:46 GMT
So, dear reader... Who are you? Wrong question.
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Ohm's Law Compels You
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Qui-Gon GlenN7
In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is.
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Post by Qui-Gon GlenN7 on Feb 8, 2019 21:12:33 GMT
So, dear reader... Who are you? Wrong question. Not sure I can answer this honestly on a family friendly forum. Something close to Money Cash Ho's
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Post by AnDromedary on Feb 8, 2019 21:36:36 GMT
To actually answer to your OP (cause I feel bad about just making fun of it), I'd say, at least as far as the baby conundrum is concerned, yes, of course you are the same person. That is, if you can adhere to the fact that you, as in, your personality and your "being" if you will, is ultimately processed within your brain. You may not remember being a baby but that doesn't mean that that stage of your life did not influence you or that experiences made by "that earlier version of you" does not define you as you are right now. And while you read this, you have already changed anyway, your gut processed food, you probably shaved of a bunch of cells from the inner walls of your colon, maybe shed a hair follicle (certainly grew some collagen somewhere) and a few billion synapses in your brain underwent substantial plasticity. So to answer your question "who are you?", I'd say that at any given time interval asymptotically approaching a delta 0, you are the sum total of everything that happened to you until then. As such, you are ever changing, yet, we can define you as an individual even in larger time scales (such as your life span) because all the interactions that change you every nanosecond and faster are so unique within the space time continuum that we can distinguish you from anyone else. So there you go, I hope that was helpful ... somewhat. If not, I'll just refer you to this relevant post by mattig89ch
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ღ Twelfth Level Geek
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Jeremiah12LGeek
Mostly silly, occasionally useful.
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Post by Jeremiah12LGeek on Feb 9, 2019 13:14:37 GMT
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