Le 01-juin-06, à 03:58, Stathis Papaioannou a écrit :
>
> I don't see that there have been any scientific developments in the
> last twenty years which make Parfit's thought experiments more or less
> plausible.
I think so.
> The only exception I can think of is in his favour: there is
> speculation that teleportation may indeed be theoretically possible.
I think that classical teleportation is theoretically possible almost
by definition (assuming comp). I guess you are thinking about quantum
teleportation which has indeed be realized on "large" distance (about
20 up to 40 km, to my knowledge). But this is quite different: in
quantum teleportation of a quantum state the "original" state has to be
destroyed, for example.
> In any case, it is telling that even Parfit's philosophical
> adversaries do not focus on lack of scientific plausibility as an
> argument against *philosophical* validity. For the most part, he could
> have made the same points had he been writing a century ago, drawing
> on religious mythology rather than science fiction for his thought
> experiments.
>
> Perhaps a philosopher on the list could comment?
Oops, sorry. But perhaps I am a philosopher too? After all Pythagoras
invented the term :)
In any case I agree with you. Thought experiment on soul and identity,
including what happens in case of duplication appears already
implicitly in Plotinus, and explicitly in Augustine.
Bruno
PS: I will comment some ascension's posts tomorrow (hopefully: if not
it will be for Saturday).
http://iridia.ulb.ac.be/~marchal/
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Received on Thu Jun 01 2006 - 10:14:20 PDT