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).

What is personal identity? This question has been asked and debated by philosophers for centuries. The problem of personal identity is determining what conditions and qualities are necessary and sufficient for a person to exist as the same being at one time as another. Some think personal identity is physical, taking a materialistic perspective believing that bodily continuity or physicality is what makes a person a person with the view that even mental things are caused by some kind of physical occurrence. Others take a more idealist approach with the belief that mental continuity is the sole factor in establishing personal identity holding that physical things are just reflections of the mind.

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.

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).

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,

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

In philosophy, the issue of personal identity concerns the conditions under which a person at one time is the same person at another time. An analysis of personal identity

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

Life after death is a concept that has been around for many centuries. Many philosophers came to the idea that there had to be something after our life ends. For some, they believe in the afterlife. Another concept is that of reincarnation. Reincarnation is the believe that once the physical body dies, the soul is then reborn as a different being. Some religious teachings are actually said to have skewed some of the details about reincarnation.

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