Identity and the Self

1
Identity and the Self

• The Problem of Personal Identity
• What makes someone the same person at two
  distinct moments in time?
• What are some popular answers to this question?
• What are the theories and arguments of Locke,
  Hume, and Reid?

2

• Four Theories of Personal Identity (Perry)
• Same Substance Views
• Same-Soul View Person stages A and B belong to
  the same person iff they are stages of the same
  soul, or immaterial substance.
• Same-Body View Person stages A and B belong to
  the same person iff they are stages of the same
  body, or material substance.
• The Memory View (Locke)
• Person stages belong to the same person iff the
  later could contain an experience which is a
  memory of a reflective awareness of an experience
  contained in the earlier.
• The Bundle View (Hume)
• For my part, when I enter most intimately into
  what I call myself, I always stumble on some
  particular perception or other, of heat or cold,
  light or shade, love or hatred, pain or pleasure.
  I never can catch myself at any time without a
  perception, and never can observe any thing but
  the perception. (Q 281 Treatise, 4.6)

3

• Problems for Three Theories
• Same-body view Suppose that two souls inhabit
  one body. (Locke, Q 272)
• Same-soul view Suppose that you have the same
  soul as another person but that you have no
  memory of being that person. (Locke, Q 272)
• Memory view Suppose a brave officer to have
  been flogged when a boy at school for robbing an
  orchard, to have taken a standard from the enemy
  in his first campaign, and to have been made a
  general in advanced life suppose, also . . .
  that, when he took the standard, he was conscious
  of having been flogged at school, and that, when
  made a general, he was conscious of his taking
  the standard, but had absolutely lost the
  consciousness of his flogging. (Reid, Q 277)

4

• Personal Identity in the Movies Which theories
  of personal identity are endorsed, or rejected,
  by the following film thought experiments?
• Fight Club
• The Narrator Tyler Durden?
• Are they the same person?
• If yes, then this is a counterexample to the
  memory view.
• Maybe it supports the same-body view.
• If no, then this is a counterexample to the same
  body view.
• Maybe it supports the memory view.
• Being John Malkovich
• Craig (or Lotte, or Maxine) John Malkovich?
• Do they share the same body but are distinct
  persons?
• If yes, then this is a counterexample to the
  same-body view.
• Maybe it supports the same-soul view.

5

• Questions about Being John Malkovich
• What motivates people to want to be John
  Malkovich? What does this tell us about personal
  identity (or about meaning)?
• What happens to the bodies of persons who inhabit
  JM? Why is the film called Being JM and not Being
  in JMs Body?
• If your body changed substantially, if you were
  in JMs body, would you change substantially?
  Would you still be you? What does this tell us
  about the relationship between the self and the
  body?
• Is Maxine in control? Why does she always gets
  what she wants?
• Is it wrong to be JM (or to inhabit his body)?
  Why?

6

• Comment on these quotes
• Lotte, on being John Malkovich I knew who I
  was, everything made sense!
• Maxine Do you have any idea what it is like to
  have two people look at you with total devotion
  through the same pair of eyes?
• John I know what my passion taking hold is
  like!
• What happens when a man goes through his own
  porthole?
• Craig, on being a puppeteer . . . being inside
  of someones skin and seeing what they see, and
  feeling what they feel.

7

• Being John Malkovich (Spike Jonze, 1999)
• John Cusack .... Craig Schwartz
• Cameron Diaz .... Lotte Schwartz
• Catherine Keener .... Maxine
• John Malkovich .... John Horatio Malkovich
• Orson Bean .... Dr. Lester
• Mary Kay Place .... Floris
• Ned Bellamy .... Derek Mantini
• Eric Weinstein .... Father at Puppet Show
• Madison Lanc .... Daughter at Puppet Show
• Octavia Spencer .... Woman in Elevator
• K.K. Dodds .... Wendy
• Reginald C. Hayes .... Don
• Byrne Piven .... Captain Mertin
• Judith Wetzell .... Tiny Woman
• Kevin Carroll .... Cab Driver

8

• Fight Club (David Fincher, 1999)
• Edward Norton .... The Narrator
• Brad Pitt .... Tyler Durden
• Helena Bonham Carter .... Marla Singer
• Meat Loaf .... Robert Bob Paulson
• Zach Grenier .... Richard Chesler
• Richmond Arquette .... Intern
• David Andrews (I) .... Thomas
• George Maguire .... Group Leader
• Eugenie Bondurant .... Weeping Woman
• Christina Cabot .... Group Leader
• Sydney 'Big Dawg' Colston .... Speaker
• Rachel Singer .... Chloe
• Christie Cronenweth .... Airline Attendant
• Tim De Zarn .... Inspector Bird
• Ezra Buzzington .... Inspector Dent