On 27 Feb 2009, at 01:57, Günther Greindl wrote:
>
> Hi,
>
>> Personal identity and memory could be a useful fiction for living.
>> Here
>> I was alluding to possible deeper sense of the self, which makes me
>> conceive that indeed there is only one person playing a trick to
>> itself.
>> Like if our bodies where just disconnected windows giving to that
>> unique
>> person the ability to have a sort of stereoscopic view on reality.
>
> I think I agree with this view. At least, in mystic mode ;-)
>
>> Memories, like body and brain are things we possess, and this
>> means, I
>> think, that we can still survive without them.
>>
>> Suppose that I die tomorrow, and that sometimes after someone find a
>> backup of "me" at the age of five, so that "I" am reconstituted from
>> that backup. Would you say I am dead, or would you say that I have
>> survived, only with a severe sort of amnesy ?
>
> We should be careful here: the "mystic I" survives, but I don't think
> that that is what most people have in mind when they talk of personal
> identity/survival. Here, the concern is clearly continuity of memory.
>
> In normal discourse, the 5 year old Bruno is clearly not an amnesic
> survivor; the older Bruno (with his unique experiences) would be dead.
I am that five years Bruno, but just older. If I am promised having a
different life, I could accept such a backup. It would be refreshing.
If I die through amnesia, I die all the time since infinity. Yet I am
still feeling to be here. Rossler is right, consciousness is a prison.
Have a good day,
Bruno
http://iridia.ulb.ac.be/~marchal/
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Received on Fri Feb 27 2009 - 02:10:54 PST