Philosophy
Derek Parfit on personal identity, and why he said identity is not what matters
12 min
Parfit's teleporter and fission thought experiments dismantle our intuitions about what makes you the same person over time — with direct bearing on mind-uploading and the continuity of the self.
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Show notes
The teletransporter thought experiment suggests selfhood is a collection of data rather than an indivisible entity.
Fission cases show that two people can maintain psychological continuity with one original person simultaneously.
Relation R defines persistence as a rope of overlapping fibers like memories and current intentions.
Reductionism views a person as a series of events rather than a separate, fixed entity.
Identity is a matter of degree rather than a binary, all-or-nothing mathematical fact.
Viewing the self as overlapping mental states can diminish the fear of death and egoism.
In this episode
- 1Intro1 min
- 2The Teletransporter and the Simple View2 min
- 3The Fission Problem3 min
- 4Relation R: What Actually Matters3 min
- 5The Ethics of the Non-Existent Self3 min
- 6Outro1 min
Sources
- The Unimportance of Identity
- 24.00F19 Lecture Handout 15: Parfit on Personal Identity
- https://dl1.cuni.cz/mod/resource/view.php?id=272218
- 2.3: Removing “identity” from “persons”- Derek Parfit - Humanities LibreTexts
- Ep. 261: Derek Parfit on Personal Identity (Part One) | The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast | A Philosophy Podcast and Blog
- Personal Identity
- Teletransportation paradox
- Personal Identity
- Derek Parfit on Personal Identity (1996)
- Reasons and Persons - Wikipedia
- S0031819111000520jra 5..28
- We Are Not Human Beings - Royal Institute of Philosophy
- Personal identity and rationality
- Personal Identity (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
- Personal Identity
- Divided Minds and the Nature of Persons
- We Are Not Human Beings1 | Philosophy | Cambridge Core
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