Stathis Papaioannou wrote:
> Brent Meeker writes:
>
> >
> Of course such cases already arise in which Alzheimer's or schizophrenia changes a person into
> >
> "someone else", i.e. we say he is "no longer himself". Just because there is an continuum of
> >
> intermediate states it doesn't follow that there is no "fact of the matter".
>
>
>
> We say "he is no longer himself", but what we mean is that even though
> we know he is the same person, he is not like the person he used to be
> before he got sick. And we know that he *is* the same person despite
> this fact because he has continuously occupied the same body. So yes, in
> every situation anyone has ever encountered, there is a simple
> enough criterion - body identity - which will determine the "fact of the
> matter" in case there is any doubt. But the challenge is to come up with
> a criterion that covers all *possible* situations. Body identity will
> not do if we could teleport from one place to another: I could kill
> someone, teleport away, then argue in court that it wasn't me who did it
> because I have a different body now.
You don't have to. Body identity is not sufficient to establish the "fact of the matter". People
may be acquited to murder (by reason of insanity) because they suffer from multiple personality
disorder. In such cases, one "personality" is generally not aware of the other(s).
Brent Meeker
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Received on Wed May 31 2006 - 23:52:44 PDT