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    Carmelics

    A reasoning platform. Break down any belief into clear reasons, explore both sides, and weigh the evidence honestly.

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    Made withinDC&Austin
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    Home/Original/inverse
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    Inverse View

    It is not the case that Persons (properly understood) cannot exist earlier than they do.

    ?Set your confidence on the premises below to see your aggregate.

    Reasons For

    2 perspectives
    Reason for 1 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Biological organisms have determinate identities prior to the emergence of psychological continuity, as Olson's animalism demonstrates.
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    • 2.If the organism and the person are identical (or if personhood supervenes on the organism), then the person exists whenever the organism exists.
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    • 3.Therefore, persons can exist earlier than their psychological continuity emerges, undermining the claim that earlier existence is impossible.
      ?

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    Reason for 2 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Parfit's reductionism entails that personal identity is not a deep further fact but is constituted by overlapping chains of psychological connectedness.
      ?

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    • 2.If psychological continuity is a matter of degree rather than a discrete threshold, then the boundary marking when a 'person' begins is arbitrary and conventional, not metaphysically fixed.
      ?

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    • 3.A claim of metaphysical necessity—that persons cannot exist earlier than they do—cannot be grounded in what is merely a conventional classificatory decision.
      ?

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    Reasons Against

    1 perspective
    Reason against
    ?
    • 1.Persons are objects (distinct from organisms) with psychological persistence conditions, chief among which is psychological continuity.
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    • 2.If mental continuity is constitutive of personal identity, then when a particular consciousness emerges is essential to that person.
      ?

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