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Full Idea
We retain identity not by staying the same (the preserve of gods) but by replacing losses with new similar acquisitions.
Gist of Idea
Only the gods stay unchanged; we replace our losses with similar acquisitions
Source
Plato (The Symposium [c.384 BCE], 208b)
Book Ref
Plato: 'The Symposium', ed/tr. Hamilton,W [Penguin 1951], p.89
A Reaction
Any modern student of personal identity should be intrigued by this remark! It appears to take a rather physical view of the matter, and to be aware of human biology as a process. Are my continuing desires token-identical, or just 'similar'?
| 180 | We call a person the same throughout life, but all their attributes change [Plato] |
| 181 | Only the gods stay unchanged; we replace our losses with similar acquisitions [Plato] |
| 12809 | Nothing about me is essential [Locke] |
| 24139 | A 'person' is just one possible abstraction from a bundle of qualities [Nietzsche] |
| 15803 | Bad theories of the self see it as abstract, or as a bundle, or as a process [Chisholm] |
| 21843 | People consist of many undetermined lines, some rigid, some supple, some 'lines of flight' [Deleuze] |