Re: Is a Person One or Many?

From: Stathis Papaioannou (stathisp@gmail.com)
Date: Sat Mar 08 2008 - 18:35:01 MST


On 09/03/2008, John K Clark <johnkclark@fastmail.fm> wrote:

> > It is an objective fact that tomorrow someone
> > will wake up in my bed who thinks he is me,
> > but it is *not* an objective fact that this
> > person is, indeed, me.
>
>
> Who cares? That is not a rhetorical question, I'd really like to know
> who cares. Certainly you don't care, after all right or wrong you still
> think you are you. Objectivity is of trivial importance, subjectivity is
> the most important thing in the universe; at least in my subjective
> opinion.

Right, but my point was that so-called paradoxes of personal identity
are due to the fact that it is subjective. I am programmed to believe
that there is only one version of me persisting through time. This
profoundly ingrained belief causes problems when we start talking
about copying people. If we just stick to the facts - one version of
me here, two versions of me there - there are no paradoxes.

-- 
Stathis Papaioannou


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