Essay
Essay A222 - TMA01
- Module
- A222
- Institution
- The Open University (OU)
Essay of 5 pages for the course A222 at OU (TMA02-A222)
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Enrique Sarabia Sánchez - personal identifier: G6533073TMA 01 – PART A
1.What are ‘thought experiments’ in philosophy? (40 words)
Thought experiments set imaginary situations using theories or hypothesis with the purpose of
thinking about their consequences.
Using these experiments, we can evaluate the truth or the lie of determinate arguments whether
philosophical or scientific.
COUNT: 35
2.What do philosophers mean by ‘personal identity’? (40 words)
By personal identity we refer to the term usually used by philosophers when they want to explain
what makes a person remain the same over time, regardless of the changes that take place.
COUNT: 33
3.What is Locke’s particular use of the term ‘person’ (or self)? (100 words)
For John Locke, the “person” must have a continuity of self-awareness over time.
He must keep in his mind the memories of past experiences and that continuity of consciousness.
Moral responsibility is the only thing that keeps you the same person. This conception makes the
identity depend on the memory to subsist.
Locke understand the "human being" as simply animal body, this definition as we have seen
before is completely different from the one of the “selves” where there must be a consciousness
continuity.
This consciousness continuity is what makes us to be the same person over the time.
COUNT: 99
4.Parfit aims to show that there are difficulties with a dominant view of the self, or person. In
what way is this dominant view similar to Locke’s? (150 words)
John Locke took a position in what the memory is the most important idea of personal identity and
therefore not physical continuity but of moral responsibility. For Locke we are people only if, for
example, we can remember part of what we did, thought, or felt yesterday. We need to be also
capable of projecting ourselves into the future to understand the consequences derived from our
future actions. In the other hand Derek Parfit states that identity is not what matters but rather
the moral responsibility we have before others, given that man, every man, is precisely the subject
of moral imputation who considers himself responsible for his actions.
Their points of view and theories are quite similar because both believe in the need of a
consciousness continuity and moral responsibility to project ourselves to the future and this is
more important for both than the body or physical continuity.
COUNT: 150
TMA 01 – PART B
, How does Parfit defend his view that a continuing self is an illusion?
Is he convincing?
(1000/1500 words)
Derek Parfit “Reasons and Persons” (1984) renounces to the idea of the substance of the self and
does not see personal identity as an all-or-nothing decision. Identity is a matter in which it is tied
to psychological and physical continuity. This makes us must admit that there are different selves.
Derek Parfit uses reductionist theory to explain problems of personal identity avoiding the concept
of personhood and describing an impersonal narrative of events. Identity in time is reduced to a
chain of psychic or physical events, the existence of a person consists necessarily in the existence
of a brain and the happenings of physical and mental processes chained together. Parfit explain
the notions of feeling the body as mine and a thought as mine through an explanation that avoids
using the term “mine”.
Parfit believes that we must reduce the concept we have of the body; therefore, we must reduce
the concept "mine" of our own body. In this discourse on the body, we must start from the
reduction of the "body" to the "brain". He avoids the essence of personal identity, which is self-
awareness or self-reflection. Parfit uses examples taken from science fiction, it has been usual to
deal with these matters, through fiction or science fiction.
In this example, (Warburton, 2011, p88) it is a peculiar transporter of people, like in the Star Trek
series, it works by making a copy of the person's cellular states at the beginning and sending the
data of the copy to the destination. There, they are used to inform a new body. The original
person is destroyed in this process. Although it is the entire body that is scanned, the most
important phase of this process is the copying of the neural states, which underlie all the
psychological states.
For example, if the human has the intention to visit a relative when he arrives at his destination,
this corresponds to a specific physical state of the brain. When the brain is copied into the new
body will serve as a support for an identical psychological state to the one the person had before
the trip. Despite of being an identical copy, the body on the destination is not the same body as in
the origin. Copying the neuronal states, it is possible to make a psychological relationship between
both almost like that which would exist between two successive situations of the same person. So,
we can say that is achieve a psychological connection between both individuals. These direct
connections are fundamental for the psychological continuity of this person in time. The
psychological connection and continuity constitute the personal identity.
Parfit, uses the expression "R relation" to define them. Let us suppose if I experienced something
before, I am scanned by the device, and let us suppose that I'm able to remember this experience
afterwards, already on my destination and with my new body. R relationship does not have a
normal cause, which is the continuity of the body, but it does have a cause, that would be
sufficient to preserve my identity. Parfit asked us what really matters when we are worried about
our future and concerned about our survival. For him what matters is the R relationship, so he has
taken that answer as an indicator of the proper criterion of personal identity.
As we know, Locke used fiction’s cases as well to see the possibility of the transit of consciousness
from one individual to another.
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