Personal Identity: Philosophical Views
Tim V Kolton
Alan Watts once said, "Trying to define yourself is like trying to bite
your own teeth." The task of personal identity is to define a quality of a
human which makes him or her a unique self. The person whose identity is in
question must realize themselves, and other people must identify this person.
In other words, what makes John unique from Bob? One must consider both
internal (mind) and external (body) perspectives. There are several general
philosophical theories of this identity problem. In the following paragraphs
one will find the body theory, soul theory, and a more detailed explanation of
the conscious theory.
One theory of personal identity is known as the body theory. This is
defined as a person X has a personal identity if and only if they have the same
body Y. However there are two problems with this definition. The first is
qualitative. It is necessary to have the same body, but if that body is changed,
is one the same person? Someone's body is surely different at age 40 than at
age 4. Also a problem arrives in alterations to a body. If John goes to war,
becomes injured by a mine, and then has his legs amputated is he not still the
same person, John? Therefore, the preceding definition of body theory is not
sufficient, since it does not account alterations to the same body. Yet another
problem is numerical. If someone were to get a finger chopped off, would that
finger be considered another person? What if a scientist was to use someo ...