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I do not believe there is any personal identity. The philosophical problem of personal identity is this: How can one determine that the person they see today is the same person they saw yesterday? Moreover, how can we tell that any other person has a mind? Perhaps everyone else is a robot and exquisitely programmed to interact with myself, but I am unable to determine if they are real or such an automaton. This problem has led to many discussions about human nature, minds, reality, etc. (The traditional pop culture reference is, of course, The Matrix series of movies.) I personally do not believe in personal identity: The person I see today as my mother may or may not be the same person that I saw the time before. But as I do not have a way to connect the two together, I must assume that there is no personal identity existent. I can also not assume that anyone else has a mind; it appears that way from my interaction with them as people, but I cannot for certain say that it is the case. That being said, I use the concepts of personal identity and other minds as a matter of convenience. It is convenient for me to believe that the woman I perceive today as my mother is the same woman that I perceived last week as my mother. Whether she is or not matters little in normal day-to-day activities, so I believe that this is the case for the convenience it gives me. Similarly, I do not believe that I can tell that any other people have minds. However, for my convenience, I assume this to be true because it eases my interaction with them -- regardless of their state of mind. (Pun intended) |
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