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    On a Lockean view, psychological continuity answers quest... — Carmelics
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    Challenges→Questions 1 and 2 about personal identity are equivalent.

    On a Lockean view, psychological continuity answers question 2 (what makes me the same person), while the persistence of the organism answers question 1 (what makes this entity continue to exist).

    ?Rate how convincing each reason is below to see the overall strength.
    1 reason for
    1 reason against

    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
    ?
    • 1.Personal identity requires psychological continuity because what matters in survival is memory and mental continuity, not bare biological facts.
      ?

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    • 2.Organisms persist through metabolic and biological processes independent of consciousness, answering an ontological question distinct from personal identity.
      ?

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    • 3.Locke's framework avoids the problem of fission by grounding personhood in subjective continuity rather than body, which brain-splitting cases show is necessary.
      ?

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    Reasons Against

    1 perspective
    Reason against
    ?
    • 1.Psychological continuity is too fragmented to ground identity; memory chains break and mental properties constantly change throughout life.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    • 2.If personhood requires psychology but organism persistence requires only biology, they answer the same metaphysical question with contradictory criteria.
      ?

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    • 3.The view implies a brain transplant recipient becomes a different person, yet our intuitions and legal frameworks treat the original organism as the person.
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    Key Terms

    Entity (Question 1: 'what makes this entity continue to exist')(as used in metaphysics)
    Any individual thing—in this case, a living body or organism—and the question of what allows it to keep existing and being recognizable as the same thing over time.
    Lockean view(as used in personal identity)
    A philosophical perspective based on the ideas of John Locke, a 17th-century English philosopher who argued that what makes you 'you' over time is the continuity of your memories and consciousness, not just your physical body.
    Persistence of the organism(as used in personal identity)
    The biological fact that your physical body continues to exist and function as a living thing, even though the cells that make it up are constantly changing.
    Personal identity (Question 2: 'what makes me the same person')(as used in metaphysics)
    The philosophical puzzle about what it means for you to remain 'you' over time—whether it's your body, your memories, your soul, or something else that makes you the same person you were yesterday.
    psychological continuity(Philosophy of personal identity)
    A relation holding between a person at one time and a being at a later time when the later being inherits the memories, intentions, beliefs, and psychological states of the earlier person.

    Connections

    1 topic

    Personal Identity1 linked

    Related

    If personhood requires psychology but organism persistence requires only biology...Locke's framework avoids the problem of fission by grounding personhood in subje...Organisms persist through metabolic and biological processes independent of cons...Personal identity requires psychological continuity because what matters in surv...

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    Psychological continuity is too fragmented to ground identity; memory chains bre...Questions 1 and 2 about personal identity are equivalent.The view implies a brain transplant recipient becomes a different person, yet ou...