Tags / 7 quotes from 1 source
#psychological-continuity
The Ego Trick (baggini, Julian)
Locke's memory criterion of personal identity
Similar thoughts informed one of the first modern advocates of psychological continuity as the key to personal identity, the seventeenth-century philosopher John Locke. Such was the emphasis he placed on memory that he has been widely attributed with holding a ‘memory…
Psychological continuity as overlapping connections
modern advocates of psychological continuity as the basis for personal identity over time see memory as just one of a number of psychological connections over time that contribute to this continuity, and they see this continuity in terms of overlapping connections, not rigid…
Psychological continuity in every human society
despite the notorious confusions of westerners trying to get by in Japanese culture, neither locals nor foreigners ever have any difficulty in treating individuals as the same individuals over time, with consistent traits, beliefs and so on. If you try to really imagine a…
Parfit: psychological connectedness and continuity
What makes for a single person over time is therefore, in the formulation of contemporary philosopher Derek Parfit, psychological connectedness and continuity. That is why a person remains the same person, even when their bodies radically change. That is why we doubt whether…
Physical yet not essentially physical
On the one hand, I’ve been arguing that we are entirely physical, and that we have no material souls. But on the other, I insist we are not our brains or our bodies, and that our identity is defined by psychological continuity. We seem to be wholly physical yet oddly not…
The unconscious matters through the conscious
It’s also worth saying something at this point about the role of the unconscious. Many of a psychoanalytic bent also criticise the kind of analytic, philosophical account of personal identity I have presented for neglecting that of which we are not conscious. It would indeed be…
Three central facts about ourselves
These are the three central facts about ourselves that we have to accept, if we believe that the Ego Trick has done its job and created unified individuals out of a bundle of mental, neural and physical activity. First, the unity of the self is psychological. Second, we are no…