----- Original Message -----
From: "Brent Meeker" <meekerdb.domain.name.hidden>
To: <everything-list.domain.name.hidden>
Sent: Friday, June 30, 2006 3:34 PM
Subject: Re: A calculus of personal identity
>
> John M wrote:
> >
> > ...
> > >Stathis wrote:
> > >...
> >
> "I agree. Other people are part of the model of the
> world we form. And in the same way the existence of
> myself, as a durable entity, is also a part of that
> model.
> Brent Meeker"
> > *
> > Does this agreed double(?) statement not rub too close
> > on solipsism?
>
> Not if you accept that *all* our ideas of reality are models. The fact
that they work well and are
> coherent makes me believe they are models of an external reality - not a
personal illusion - but I
> can still doubt that they *are reality* itself. In other words I take
them to be like scientific
> theories: provisionally accepted, but subject to refutation.
>
Provided that your solipsism does not 'illusion' similarly thinking persons
and phenomena that all match closely he one you imagined as the 'original'
one.
'Scientific theories' ditto.
Solipsism is an irrefutable quagmire of lunacy.
> >
> > Then again:
>...
> I have memories from when I was 5yrs old, but the source of identity I
feel in those memories arises
> only from the fact that I remember a personal viewpoint in spactime and I
remember emotions. Those
> are the same aspects of memories of last week that make them coherent with
>my model of myself as a being who persists over time.
>
> Brent Meeker
>
I would love to go a bit further than that. I am working on it without
firmly believing to arrive at a "good" solution soon. (I.e. during the time
I have left).
John M
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Received on Sun Jul 02 2006 - 11:48:34 PDT