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Single Idea 7546
[filed under theme 16. Persons / D. Continuity of the Self / 2. Mental Continuity / b. Self as mental continuity
]
Full Idea
The real man, I believe, however the police may swear to his identity, is really a series of momentary men, each different one from the other, and bound together, not by a numerical identity, but by continuity and certain instrinsic causal laws.
Gist of Idea
A man is a succession of momentary men, bound by continuity and causation
Source
Bertrand Russell (The Ultimate Constituents of Matter [1915], p.124)
Book Ref
Russell,Bertrand: 'Mysticism and Logic' [Unwin 1989], p.124
A Reaction
This seems to be in the tradition of Locke and Parfit, and also follows the temporal-slices idea of physical objects. Personally I take a more physical view of things, and think the police are probably more reliable than Bertrand Russell.
The
22 ideas
with the same theme
[Self as the continuity of our conscious existence]:
1650
|
For Socrates our soul, though hard to define, is our self
[Vlastos on Socrates]
|
21828
|
A person is the whole of their soul
[Plotinus]
|
5511
|
For Locke, conscious awareness unifies a person at an instant and over time
[Locke, by Martin/Barresi]
|
12509
|
If the soul individuates a man, and souls are transferable, then a hog could be a man
[Locke]
|
1376
|
Identity must be in consciousness not substance, because it seems transferable
[Locke]
|
12512
|
If someone becomes conscious of Nestor's actions, then he is Nestor
[Locke]
|
12513
|
If a prince's soul entered a cobbler's body, the person would be the prince (and the man the cobbler)
[Locke]
|
12514
|
On Judgement Day, no one will be punished for actions they cannot remember
[Locke]
|
1397
|
Locke sees underlying substance as irrelevant to personal identity
[Locke, by Noonan]
|
12973
|
We know our own identity by psychological continuity, even if there are some gaps
[Leibniz]
|
21306
|
Causation unites our perceptions, by producing, destroying and modifying each other
[Hume]
|
21311
|
Are self and substance the same? Then how can self remain if substance changes?
[Hume]
|
7546
|
A man is a succession of momentary men, bound by continuity and causation
[Russell]
|
7946
|
The memory criterion has a problem when one thing branches into two things
[Williams,B, by Macdonald,C]
|
1393
|
One of my future selves will not necessarily be me
[Parfit]
|
5521
|
If my brain-halves are transplanted into two bodies, I have continuity, and don't need identity
[Parfit]
|
5522
|
Over a period of time what matters is not that 'I' persist, but that I have psychological continuity
[Parfit]
|
5351
|
We only have a sense of our self as continuous, not as exactly the same
[Flanagan]
|
23547
|
It seems absurd that there is no identity of any kind between two objects which involve survival
[Fine,K]
|
5503
|
Maybe personal identity is not vital in survival, and other continuations would suffice
[Martin/Barresi]
|
5504
|
Maybe we should see persons in four dimensions, with stages or time-slices at an instant
[Martin/Barresi]
|
7947
|
In continuity, what matters is not just the beginning and end states, but the process itself
[Macdonald,C]
|