Questions tagged [identity]
The identity tag has no usage guidance.
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What is the moral difference between abortion and infanticide?
Many people accept abortion on the grounds that foetuses aren't persons, and that personhood is what defines the right to life. I've always been intrigued about what defines personhood; obviously ...
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How can one differentiate nonexistent entities?
How is it possible for things that do not exist to not be the same? How can one differentiate nonexistent entities? How can I know the difference between ghosts and werewolves if neither exist?
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Why is it wrong to answer a question with a tautology? Isn't "2+2" correct when answering 'What is "2+2"'?
Many times in class, we are asked to answer, "What is 2+2?" or "What is the derivative of the function x?". It would not be the intended answer to write "2+2" or "...
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Why am I this particular human being?
Some philosophers dismiss this as a question about a tautology: when Alice asks "Why am I Alice?", this is equivalent to her asking "Why is Alice Alice?", which is not an interesting question. But ...
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When and why do we say that two things are the same?
In a preceeding question I have asked about the foundations of rational reasonning. It seems the concept of identity plays a key role. However "identity" is not observed in the real world: our mind ...
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How can a stream of thoughts and perceptions have freewill?
William James believed that there was no central entity or ego that embodied the "I" in "I feel" or "I think". That the continuous stream of thoughts and sensations generated the illusion of their ...
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Why is a set with one element distinct from the element itself?
Why do we consider a set which is treated for all intents and purposes as a 'collection' with one element as being different from the element itself? In this 'collection' there is one element, and ...
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Why should we care about personal identity?
I just read a book about personal identity and it gave me insights in different theories about personal identity. But after all, I still don't get, why we should care about personal identity.
Being ...
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If I upload my brain into a computer is it still me?
I think the answer is yes but I know a lot of people disagree. So, I would like to ask these people when exactly does it stop being me.
Let's say I want to upload my brain into a computer using the ...
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What are the philosophical solutions to "ship of Theseus" problem of identity?
Ship of Theseus is a thought experiment in which every piece of a ship kept in a harbor is replaced one at a time. The questions are: would the end result be the same ship or a new ship? If it is not ...
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What is the status of the statement: "I am here now"?
The statement "I am here now" seems to have many peculiar properties that I am not sure how to express. It appears analytically and equally true for any speaker anywhere at anytime. Yet its truth is ...
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What's a name for the impossibility of identity?
It appears to me that no two things can ever be identical, yet the notion that they can has been deployed rather without pause about a billion times in theoretical literature in philosophy and ...
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Does a transgender person become a different person after transitioning?
Perhaps this is an odd question, but...
Question: Does a transgender person become a different person after transitioning?
I'm seeking an answer from a philosophical point of view (hence why I ask ...
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Does personal identity/"the self" persist through periods of unconsciousness, such as dreamless sleep?
http://existentialcomics.com/comic/1
I read the above comic, something which turned out to be a mistake because I have just enough understanding of physics, and philosophy to follow its line of ...
user48033
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Are there thought experiments about physicalism?
Other than Mary's Room and maybe Searle's Chinese Room are there any other interesting thought experiments against the ideas of physicalism, and the idea our minds are identical to our brains?
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Does the 'too many thinkers' argument cripple Locke's conception of Man and Persons?
Does the too many thinkers problem present a counter-argument to John Locke's account of personal identity, if we apply it to his conceptions of Man and Person?
If so, how might Locke answer this ...
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Why is violating "the only x and y principle" a problem in personal identity theory?
The only x and y principle states that the relation between "x=y" only depends on facts about x & y. So if we say something like "Bob is this particular human being" then this relationship is only ...
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Why is the identity predicate needed?
In Logic: The Laws of Truth the identity predicate is introduced as an extension of general predicate logic (GPL). The following propositions are given as motivating examples:
(1) "Mark Twain is ...
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Can you think a teleporter kills the 'real' you, and also be a physicalist?
I'm taking philosophy as a senior subject in high school, so my depth of understanding of pretty much any philosophical theory is very limited. I think I side more with a physicalist account of the ...
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Is there any evidence to suggest that our conciousness regularly replaces itself?
I heard on some article that conciousness cannot persist through time and that every second ( or an even shorter duration ) it changes to a new one, is there any evidence to suggest this? Is our ...
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Identity in Quantified Modal Logic
Why is ¬(◇(a=b)∧◇¬(a=b)) a validity in Quantified Modal Logic (QML)? For example, let a:=“the present King of France” and b:=“the richest bald person alive”. Then, it seems ◇(a=b)∧◇¬(a=b) is not a ...
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Can a person's continuity of consciousness be broken and a new person arise?
I realize that the person I am as I type these letters and the person I am at the end of this sentence is slightly different. Change occurs all the time and infact change within my brain is the reason ...
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Are these random experiments the same?
Consider two experiments concerning similar fair coins(*):
Throw the same coin N times and observe the outcome.
Throw N similar but different coins 1 time each and observe the outcome.
(*) One can ...
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How does one determine the boundary of an object?
Say we have what we would call an 'object' made of many components, can these 'components' be named objects themselves? In the case do we have an object or many 'objects'? Do we define an object to be ...
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Is there a philosophical word to describe "Trigger's Brush"?
In the TV show Only Fools and Horses a character called Trigger has a sweeping brush. He is proud that he has had the same brush for 17 years. However he reveals he's replaced both the head and ...
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The Immortal Jellyfish
I watched an episode of "The Blacklist" which is a popular show on the TV streaming service Netflix. In the episode, the main character refers to a very tiny marine creature commonly known as the "...
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Can a reason cost 5 dollars?
Imagine a school where no one can wear a red hat. John goes to school with a red hat costing 5 dollars. Someone says John's red hat "is" the reason why he can't get into the school.
What is the ...
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Does Edward Said offer a solution to Orientalism and could a possible solution relate to Charles Taylors term "Politics of Recognition?
I've recently read Edward Said's book Orientalism but throughout reading, I didn't really find an explicit solution to Orientalism. Though the thing I could see take form as a solution would be his ...
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Can fictional entities have capacities?
Can fictional entities have capacities?
I think in Buddhism there is a definite trend to claim that every entity is fictional, but has causes and effects. i wouldn't really assent to the idea that ...
user6917
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How to account for the identity of books or theories? Inquiries into qualitative identity
I'm looking for articles or books that discuss how we account for qualitative identity.
The distinction between qualitative and numerical identity is often drawn, but then the discussion tends to veer ...
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Did Locke reject the idea that people had temporal parts?
I'm currently studying Locke's theory of personal identity and wondered if his writing rejected the idea that people had temporal parts.
Does anyone have any references that would support the idea ...
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What would be Gilbert Ryle's necessary and sufficient conditions for being a human being?
One of my students asked me this question and I can't answer it. I thought it was a great question. Any suggestions on an equally good answer?
(I'm not a trained philosopher, I'm a historian. I teach ...
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Almost Sure Mind Transfer via Parfit's Identity Theory (interesting thought experiment)
Under Derek Parfit's theory of identity, we should direct our concern to future selves not because they are identical to us, but because they bear some special relation to our current self. He used ...
user4634
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What would be the implications if the equality of opposites was true?
Heraclitus famously believed in the equality of opposites, as do I. Would the truth of the equality of opposites have any significant implications for reason and logic?
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Is everything identical to itself, or merely every existing thing?
One of the properties of identity is that everything is identical to itself. But, does "everything" mean literally everything, or merely every thing that exists? For example, I don't think 1/...
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Is one object at different times actually different objects?
Consider an atom of hydrogen at a time t, and the "same" atom of hydrogen at a time t + 1 second. Are those atoms really the same, or are they distinct? I believe they are distinct, because ...
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Historiography of the Ship of Theseus
Does anybody know of a historiography or review of the discussion of the idea of the Ship of Theseus and things related thereto (I suppose this might also include Alan Gibbard's discussion of the ...
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How does Parfit's "brain division" thought experiment refute the brain theory of personal identity?
Shoemaker proposes that identical persons are individuals who are psychologically continuous and share the same brain. This is the brain theory of personal identity. However, Parfit takes objection to ...
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Is a Reflection on a Bus, part of the Bus?
Riding the bus I wondered to myself what does it mean to be a part of this bus. From a physics/ computer vision interpretation one may collect all parts that are moving in unison with the larger whole ...
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Where does 'numerical' in 'numerical identity' come from?
L.S.,
the word numerical has several meanings. E.g. numerical in the meaning ''given by numbers', and when saying Numerical Identity, meaning 'only one'.
When was the first time the word was ...
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Why am I myself rather than someone else?
Why am I myself rather than someone else?
I think I read something like this in an encyclopedia; that it's a question in philosophy.
Not asking what makes me myself, my body, psychology, and ...
user6917
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Is the permanent self still tenable? [closed]
I wonder what a possible objection could be:
P1) The self is static in change;
P2) If P1 is true then change cannot be the self otherwise the self wouldn't be static;
C) Therefore, change is the ...
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What's the difference between cloning and metabolism in terms of affecting personal identity?
Suppose I'm cloned when I am alive. Provided there is a technology that can copy ALL my mental states into the clone, such as memories, values, beliefs and the like. No more, no less. Also there is ...
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Books/Pieces/Essays about self-worth? [closed]
I'm interested in reading some good books/pieces/essays about self-worth (ultimate meaning of life, learning, working, etc).
It's hard to precisely define the topic, but anything you think is ...
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What determines a person's gender identity?
I've noticed that when many transgender allies and even some transgender people themselves have their claims investigated that they, in my estimation, can never really answer them too adequately: one ...
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Definition of social personality from Dennett still working with digital Identities?
I am not sure how familiar you are with the definition of social personality from Dennett. It consits of 6 steps, like you can read here.
(1) persons are rational. (2) they are the subjects of ...
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How do modern moralities obscure connections between identity and the good?
Charles Taylor writes in the preface of Sources of the Self (p. x, Harvard University Press 1989), emphasis mine:
But because my entire way of proceeding involves mapping connections between senses ...
user2953
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identity and self
From "The Craft of Family Therapy" by Salvador Minuchin, etc.:
A self is created in a context populated by significant "others" at
different historical periods in the life of a person, but it has ...
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Is the assertion of a moral imperative in complying with a person's self-attested "gender" consistent with broader principles of declared attributes?
The Wikipedia style guide discusses how if a person states that they consider themselves a particular gender, selects a name for themselves in conjunction with a change in gender, and asserts ...
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Is the moment of change numerically identical with the time it occurs?
Is the moment of change numerically identical with the time it occurs?
If the moment of change is today at noon, is that the exact same time as today at noon, whatever it is else happens then?
It may ...
user62133