
Personal Identity Ronald F. White, Ph.D. Professor of Philosophy College of Mount St. Joseph
Introduction • What is “identity?” • What is “personal identity?”
The Puzzle • Personal identity • Bodies • Minds • Sociality • Immortality
Historical • Plato • Aristotle • Hippocrates- • Judeo-Christian • Descartes
Personal Identity Theory • Empiricist • Idealist • Bundle Theory: “I am a bundle of ideas.” • Memory, Dreams, Hallucinations • Idealism: • Subjectivism • Transcenentalism • Materialist • Bundle Theory: “I am a bundle of bodily functions.”
Personal Immortality? • Survival of what? • Individual • Body • Individual body • Soul • Individual soul • Ideas • Individual ideas (memories) • Collectives • Civilizations • Institutions
Arguments for and Against Immortality • Bodily Immortality • For: Genetic Immortality • Against: Thermodynamics • Mental (spiritual) Immortality • For: • Against? • Is it rational to fear death?