There are many concepts and phenomena that people cannot understand or process due to their lack of presence in reality or physical non-existence, such as time or soul. While time as a concept is subjected to rules of physics and could even be measured while remaining a mystery, such concepts as soul and identity will be a topic of endless discussions. The topics of souls, identity, and immortality were discussed in ancient religion and philosophy, detached from reality, and applied to reality. This paper will explore some arguments on what it means to be the same person as a person at another time.
John Perry’s Dialogue on Personal Identity and Immortality takes place between three friends. One of the friends will soon die of injuries and questions whether there is a way for her to survive and if that will be the exact version of her and not a different copy. While such discussion in everyday context would seem out of place due to incomprehensibility, the approaching death of the main character makes the situation more realistic. In conversations between friends, Perry draws several analogies that allow characters to define the concept of personal identity that could be used to distinguish one person from his identical copy (2). However, in defining the concept, the characters meet troubles in what is included in identity, if character, memory, and beliefs could be replicated or implemented. Even though the concept of identity in religion connects to the soul component, Perry debates that there is no certainty that one person holds a single soul for his entire life.
Furthermore, Perry’s suggestions on personal identity being the sole source of distinguishing a specific version of a person from his other alterations leads to the thought that immortality and, therefore, survival cannot be real. There is no doubt that the body acts as a vial for a higher purpose substance, such as identity or soul. However, there is no way that the version of a person without injuries in the afterlife will have the same identity, or that identity could recreate itself from ashes (Perry 3). Therefore, there could be no immortality for soul or identity besides physical inability to die.
Thus, after reading Perry’s work, I was able to develop my argument in favor of identity’s existence. While my understanding of personal identity resulted from Perry’s work, it presents an opposing view on identity and its uniqueness. Perry views identity as a difference between various versions of one person. In my opinion, different states of mind, such as memory, beliefs, and feelings, construct the identity in the sense of it being the person’s intention. Rather than using a religious approach in which a soul is given to one identity, I assume that the soul’s ascension in the afterlife represents the immortality of identity.
Lastly, the character in Perry’s work explored the personal identity detached from aspects of actions and intentions, which present a combination of their experiences, memories, and behavior. Joe Biden alive and acting as president and Joe Biden in 2050 would more likely exhibit the same intentions in different contexts. Therefore, in my opinion, different versions of one person will all have the same identity, and identity is what connects them and differs from other people.
Work Cited
Perry, John. A Dialogue on Personal Identity and Immortality. 1978.