Personal Identity :: essays research papers

Personal IdentityPersonal Identity can be low-down down into three atomic number 18as 1.) Body 2.) Memoryand 3.) Soul. In John Perrys "A Dialogue on Personal Identity andImmortality" these composing aspects of personal identity atomic number 18 discussed atlength. In the reading and class discussions the body was defined clearly as apart of wizards person, correct alluded to at times as a "prison" in which one cannotescape until one dies. Memory and ones Soul seemed to be lumped together manytimes, understandably so, for the two bare many things in common such as theyare intangible, cannot be completely defined as to what each exactly is (peopleremember things that did not actually happen to them, are those still memories?do you have one spirit throughout your life?), and both are thought to composeones character and beliefs. This essay will shroud with the two aspects of onespersonal identity which are the most obvious in day to day life, that of thebody and of soul/memory.As stated beforehand, memory and the soul bare many of the same qualities.The body and soul, however, also share this trait. Perry illustrates in hisessay that the body and soul are similar because there is a " marry" surrounded by oneanother, that is they both make up a person and are responsible for thequalities associated with being an individual (height, weight, character, belief,etc.). Perry also comes back to challenge this utilize the analogy of a river.If one goes to a river, and then the next day goes back to the same river, theperson will not say that it is a distinguishable river, although almost all of theproperties of the river have changed (water molecules, pollution level,temperature, etc.). This is the same with a person, for we say that a person atadolescence is still the same person at adulthood, even though the the personsbeliefs, knowledge, and character may have changed over the years. Perryanswers this problem by saying that we can sti ll regard the person as the sameby the relative "similarity" of the person to how they were in the past, andthat "the sameness of body is a reliable sign of sameness of all of soul" .In another example, Perry differentiates between the body and the soul by sayingthat "personal identity" (referring to the soul/mind) cannot be based on bodilyidentity, for one can judge who one is without having to make any judgmentsabout the body. Perry continues to elaborate on this by saying even if he woke