Summary: A Dialogue On Personal Identity And Immortality

Soul theory argues that what makes a person who they are is not their physical presence, however, it is a person’s soul that differentiates them from an other living being (Perry, pp 3). The soul is one’s consciousness, their mind, allowing them to be present, experience and make decisions (Weisberg, January 2016). One’s personal identity is directly linked to one’s soul, if one has the same soul they are the same person (Perry, pp 4).

There is belief of life after death. The soul of a dead person first lingers around the earth for three days as a result of separation from its body. On the third day, the soul is judged by its doings an is either taken to paradise (heaven) or to the world of punishment (hell).

John Perry uses his characters Miller, Weirob, and Cohen to illustrate the ambiguousness of personal identity in A Dialogue on Personal Identity and Immortality. The goal of these characters is to define personal identity in such a way that allows for the possibility of survival without a body. In order to do so, the characters Cohen and Miller attempt several definitions, all of which are scrutinized by the skeptic, Weirob. One definition of personal identity, given by Miller, is that personal identity is made of person-stages connected by real memories. Weirob refutes this definition because it relies on identity to distinguish real and apparent memory. Since identity relies on real and apparent memories, and identity is needed to distinguish the memories, the argument uses one of the premises as the conclusion. This creates a circular argument. In this paper, I will first go into detail on Miller’s definition of personal identity. Then I will indulge Weirob’s skepticism in order to understand the weaknesses of Miller’s argument. Finally, I will illustrate how Weirob fails to prove Miller’s definition wrong.

Like, the body and a being being dead or alive. The soul is what remains the bridging factor between the two.

She speaks of how the soul is immaterial. We cannot see or touch the soul, so we have no actual idea of knowing if it is there or not (Perry, 1978, 11). In that way, we do not know if we are present in the same soul as we were once before. Because we cannot measure or see the soul, there is no justification and correlation between a body having a soul or not. She brings up a comparison to the Blue River. While the concept of the river is the same, what makes up the river is different each time we see it. This can be associated with souls as well. Weirob believes that souls can be ever changing, whether it be between hours or even minutes, and that they can be physiologically similar, but not identical (Perry, 1978,

We all wonder what happens to us after death that’s why I chose to write my reading summary on Life after Death. It’s the age old question of what becomes of us, we all have our different ideas mostly based on your religious beliefs or lack of beliefs. There are plenty of different ideas of what happens but nobody knows until it is your time to go. “The question of whether we survive death is one of the big questions of human life” (Steve Stewart-Williams).

For millennia, humanity has been plagued by the issues surrounding life after death because the only way of truly knowing what happens is to actually experience it, by dying. This means that we can only theorise possible outcomes and discuss key issues such as personal identity or immortality of the soul. Theories about life after death are all interested in whether or not there is a part of the human body which survives the death of all the physical parts and where or when it goes.

Qualitative is defined by him as the person in essence, personality, thoughts, ideals, and who they are whereas Numerical is defined as the person in form, biology, chemistry, attributes, and what they are. He uses these terms to distinguish the two main aspects of what it means to be “you” or to define who someone “is” simply because no matter how you name these terms every person has these terms unique to themselves (Partif, 559-560). For example, twins would be numerically identical to a certain extent however they would be qualitatively different because despite being numerically identical they are different people with different minds, thoughts, and personalities. An example of two identities that are qualitatively identical and numerically different can be seen in art. In an art context qualitative would be defined as “content” and numerical as “form” thus two paintings could look completely different formally, or numerically but have the same meaning, content, or qualitative definition. Later in this section Partif asks the questions mentioned earlier and proceeds to answer the second, third, and partially the first. He does this with the answer “X today is one and the same person as Y at some past time if and only if…”(Partif, 560) which basically means that the same person today is the same person x time ago if the past person meets certain conditions. However, this answer is vague because it can only go one

so when a person dies in the physical form, the soul of that person just ‘disappears’. This meaning this person’s persona is no longer able to live. The body dies with the inner part. Nothing can survive the death of a Naturalists’ body. There is no Heaven and no Hell.

Reincarnation. Reincarnation is the belief that while the body may die, the soul moves on

In the Christian religion, there is a straightforward dualistic conception of existence which is the body and soul. At death, the non-physical soul separates from the physical body, however there is also different perspectives. (Segal 2010, p24). For example, others believe that the spiritual body which might have three dimensions as well as physical resurrects after death, even though

Still there is an issue of what might it be like for a soul to exist on its own,

Thesis: The main question the author makes is whether or not souls actually exist and if they are able to survive death.

The questions and the grief have yet to cease. In fact, grief is ceaseless. It has occurred in every time and place. Vague uncertainty continues. However, there is an answer that stands boldly throughout, one that is positive and clear; there is life after death.

By physicalistic criterion of personal identity we will be referring here to bodily criterion. Bodily criterion of personal identity has been put forwards a rival of psychological criterion. Bodily criterion means that a person continues to be the same person by virtue of having the same body. Now the question that arises here is how we know that it is the same