Personal Identity Is The Fear Of Death

In John Perry's A Dialogue on Personal Identity and Immortality, Gretchen Weirob argues that an individual has different character traits that split that person into diverse identities, no one is simple and he or she may have a complex identity. A person who experiences false memory may not be the same person Gretchen makes a careful distinction between two types of identities; these are the numerical and qualitative identities. The writer declares the former to be the identity and the later as the exact similarity. Same body same soul does not necessarily mean it resides in one person. I am numerically identical to myself. The same body could be equated to being numerically identical to oneself, for instance as they could be two and both of them boys, but in essence, they are still two people.

Martin Heidegger defines death as an “ownmost possibility of Da-sein,” in that it is non- relational potentiality-of-being that is certain yet indefinite but is “not to be bypassed.”2 As an ownmost possibility, every human being’s experience of death differs from one another due to the fact that one lives out his or her life differently. Even with the way one follows a routine of waking up in order to eat and carry out daily tasks and recuperating the energy one exhausted in sleep, every person creates a form of meaning in one’s daily encounters, which individualizes one person from another in these unique

In this paper, I will argue that the Memory Theory of Personal Identity is the closest to the truth. I will do so by showing that the opposing theories – Body and Soul Theories – have evident flaws and that the

The goal of the following paper is to convince that soul theory is directly linked to one’s personal identity. This paper will also point out an objection raised to the theory, and to finish will prove how that objection is incorrect, leaving soul theory as the only answer to what makes someone who they are.

The concept of personal identity or personhood is a very complex area of philosophy that challenges our most basic understandings of mind and matter. Philosophers have generally settled into either the school of mind, or consciousness, and the school of body. As our ability to study the mind grows, through developments in psychology and neurology, consciousness-based theories have come to dominate the discussion of personal identity and body-based theories appear simplistic and even primitive. Thesis: Catriona Mackenzie, however, compels the field to make a renewed examination of the body by pointing out that the body is the very apparatus by which the self interacts with world, thereby shaping all of the experiences which constitute memory and consciousness.

On the night three days before her death, Gretchen Weirob and her friends discussed the afterlife and things of the like. I am going to argue that Weirob is right to claim that personal identity cannot consist in the sameness of an immaterial, unobservable soul. – 45 words

Lately my mornings are spent getting up between 5:30am and 6am. I get myself ready, I never look fantastic just passable, and I go to work. Part of my morning routine is getting my dog, Donovan, ready for the early part of his day as well. We go to the yard for his bathroom routine, we go inside where I feed him his diet dog food and inject him with insulin, we go upstairs where I place a new diaper wrap around his mid-section (dogs with diabetes leak, who knew?), and he goes back to bed to sleep beside my husband. After we say our goodbyes I head to work, or school, or whatever adventure life has for me that particular day. Rinse, wash, repeat. I had no idea when I was in my teenage years that my life at 32 years old would be a tattooed, married, full time working, full time schooling, boring, Puerto Rican, animal lover. Well, the animal loving part I knew since I was maybe 2.

Derek Parfit's views on personal identity and the Ego and Bundle Theory are all summarized in his article “Divided Minds and the Nature of Persons”. In his article, Parfit explains the distinction between Ego theory and Bundle theory and provides several arguments against Ego Theory. Although it proves to be very difficult to believe the Bundle Theory, Parfit’s critique is convincing and well thought out.

In, “A Dialogue on Personal Identity and Immortality,” the author, John Perry, proposes three totally different ways of thinking about personal identity. The first theory is presented by a character named Gretchen Weirob, she believes that a person is their body. By this she means that a person’s identity is intertwined with the DNA and molecules of their body. Their personality as well as their personal identity can’t be separated from their body, and they cannot exist without it. The second theory was presented by a character named Sam Miller, he believes that a person is their immaterial soul. So in general, Sam thinks that the soul is this invisible, immaterial substance that is able to exist from the body. The third and final theory was presented by a character named Dave Cohen. Cohen believes that a person has continuity of memory, and/or psychology. So in general Cohen’s theory is that personal identity is a set of correlating experiences and/or memories enclosed in the brain. All three of the personal identity theories state some very valid points, but they also have some inconsistencies, some more than others. But there is one theory that seems to be the most credible, and creates a very compelling argument while also having a little science to back up some of its points.

On could survive the destruction of one’s psychological content as long as the body remains alive.

Within all these theoretical standpoints, the theme and process of coming to terms with death and relationship could be regarded as the essence of an existential quest; one

There are many reasons why individuals are afraid of death: inability to take care of dependents, pain and sadness that loved ones will feel, or fear of the afterlife. But one of the most common reasons is the fear of nothingness and loss of self (Yalom, 1980). Death anxiety can manifest itself in many different ways (Yalom, 1980). One’s feeling of missing exciting events or the desire to control the surrounding world, demonstrate this manifestation. These unhealthy thoughts help individuals ease fear of death by dealing not with the real and terrifying source of anxiety, but indirectly, through more socially acceptable actions. Many people protect themselves from death anxiety by denying it. Yalom (1980) discussed two ways that accomplish this goal: the ultimate rescuer and personal specialness. Both ideas lead people to feel that they will not be affected by misfortune like others might be. The ultimate rescuer is a type of defense mechanism leading people to believe that someone will come into their life and save them from their problems. An example of this would be a person with severe financial problems needing money to take care of health problems believing that someone or something will bring the needed money and the situation will work itself out. Personal specialness involves the belief that one is in a way different from others and therefore immune from the hardships of life. Personal specialness

Philosophers over time have tried to explain their understanding on the view of personal identity some of the like Rene Descartes adding the views of the existence of the material souls or egos. His views on the existence of egos suggest that people have bodies which can die but still they continue to exist. In as such other philosophers proposed diverging views from him suggesting that such a simple

Many people question themselves, what is it exactly that makes them unique? What is it that defines them as a unique person that no one in the world possesses? In philosophy, these questions do not have just one answer, and all answers are correct depending on which theory appeals most and makes sense to you. In general, there are two ways people approach this question, some say that a person’s identity is the “self” that carries all of their experiences, thoughts, memories, and consciousness (ego theorists), and some say that a person’s identity is just a bundle of experiences and events that a person has been through in their life, these people deny that the “self” exists (bundle theorists). In this paper, I will be arguing that a person’s identity is just a bundle of experiences, denying the self and the memory criterion.

Martin Heidegger’s work in Being and Time elucidated a phenomenological ontology in which death and anxiety function as the imminent possibility of impossibility, circumscribing Dasein and inscribing weight to Dasein’s temporal existence. He constructs an individual whose ontological whole is made of three fundamental elements that function as a whole; understanding, feeling and action. This being, Dasein (translated as Being There), exists in the world, and Heidegger constructs Dasein’s ontology as being-in-the-world. This is the way Alphonso Lingis predicates his understanding of Heidegerrian phenomenology in an essay from Research in Phenomenology entitled “The World