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    The thought experiment might provide a way in which a hum... — Carmelics
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    The thought experiment might provide a way in which a human organism could have come into existence far earlier than she did, but it does not provide a way in which a person could have come into existence far earlier.

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

    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
    ?
    • 1.Persons (properly understood) cannot exist earlier than they do.
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    • 2.Persons are distinct from organisms and have psychological persistence conditions.
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    Reasons Against

    2 perspectives
    Reason against 1 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Parfit's reductionist view holds that personal identity consists in overlapping chains of psychological continuity, not in a strictly bounded singular entity.
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    • 2.On reductionism, there is no principled barrier preventing earlier psychological chains from constituting the same person, contra Kaufman's modal claim.
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    • 3.Kaufman's argument smuggles in a non-reductionist conception of persons without defending it against Parfit's influential challenge.
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    Reason against 2 of 2
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    • 1.Animalists like Eric Olson argue that persons just are human organisms, making the person/organism distinction Kaufman relies on metaphysically unwarranted.
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    • 2.If animalism is true, any scenario allowing earlier organismic existence ipso facto allows earlier personal existence, undermining Kaufman's asymmetry.
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    Topics

    Afterlife & Death

    Key Terms

    Human organism(as used in metaphysics and philosophy of mind)
    The physical body—the biological, material thing made of cells and organs—as distinct from the person or consciousness that inhabits it.
    Modal language (could have come into existence)(as used in logic and metaphysics)
    Language about what is possible, necessary, or contingent—words like 'could,' 'might,' 'must,' and 'can' that describe different ways things might be rather than how they definitely are.
    person(Used to ground the claim that bodily and mental authority belongs to the person whose body and mind they are)
    An entity constituted by a body and a mind, which are parts or aspects of that entity
    thought experiment(The sage's rhetorical device comprising two hypothetical situations about the ruler of India.)
    A hypothetical scenario constructed to test what would count as sufficient grounds for a conclusion, here used by the sage to probe the epistemic standards for belief in God.

    Related

    Animalists like Eric Olson argue that persons just are human organisms, making t...If animalism is true, any scenario allowing earlier organismic existence ipso fa...Kaufman's argument smuggles in a non-reductionist conception of persons without ...On reductionism, there is no principled barrier preventing earlier psychological...
    +3 moreShow less
    Parfit's reductionist view holds that personal identity consists in overlapping ...Persons (properly understood) cannot exist earlier than they do.

    Source

    AI-extracted2/3 agreementValid
    SEP: death
    Frederik Kaufman (2016, p. 63)
    View source passageHide passage
    According to Frederik Kaufman (2016, p. 63), this thought experiment (perhaps tweaked a bit) might provide a way in which a human organism could have come into existence far earlier than she did, but it does not provide a way in which a person could have come into existence far earlier. “Persons (properly understood) cannot exist earlier than they do.” He bases this view on the assumption—challenged by animalists but defended by Parfit—that persons are objects (distinct from organisms) with psychological persistence conditions, chief among which is psychological continuity, together with the a...
    Extraction notes

    Validity: The passage explicitly attributes these premises to Kaufman and uses them to support the conclusion that while a human organism could have existed earlier, a person could not have, and the extracted argument faithfully represents this reasoning chain present in the source.

    Persons are distinct from organisms and have psychological persistence condition...

    Similar

    It is metaphysically impossible for a person to have come into existen...81%It is possible for a person to have existed longer than she actually d...78%It is entirely reasonable not to want to come into existence earlier e...73%The person in a later life and the person in an earlier life do not st...72%

    Confidence: This is the broader conclusion Kaufman draws from his view about the nature of persons.

    Details

    Type
    claim
    Perspectives
    3 (1 for, 2 against)
    Edits
    1 edit