Single Idea 180

[catalogued under 16. Persons / E. Rejecting the Self / 1. Self as Indeterminate]

Full Idea

During the period from boyhood to old age, man does not retain the same attributes, though he is called the same person.

Gist of Idea

We call a person the same throughout life, but all their attributes change

Source

Plato (The Symposium [c.373 BCE], 207d)

Book Reference

Plato: 'The Symposium', ed/tr. Hamilton,W [Penguin 1951], p.88


A Reaction

This precisely identifies the basic problem of personal identity over time. If this is the problem, DNA looks more and more significant for the answer, though it would be an awful mistake to think a pattern of DNA was a person.