Heidegger

In a message dated 27/04/2008 17:23:32 GMT Standard Time,
crifasian at gmail.com writes:

Joseph Polanik wrote:

> in the context of the discussion of of Anthony’s premise, ‘if I exist;
> then, I am self-identical throughout all my perceptions’, there is an
> ambguity concerning ‘identity’ (which human am I) and ‘identicality’
> (whether I am 100% identical over time).

not really. All Hume is saying is that whatever about you changes, at
least something about you must remain 100% identical if you refer to
yourself as the same “you” your whole life. But when you try to find
evidence for that identical part of you, you can’t.

Jud:
That’s because of the Ship of Theseus effect. The change happens over time.
When the Greek seafarer’s bark returned to Greece it was not just the vessel
which had been completely replaced, plank by plank, nail by nail - the crew
themselves had been renewed. Are they the same entities? ( a mereological
problem)

The difference is - humans replicate their cells completely every seven
years and boats do not. As we get older, the rate at which our cells are
replaced slows down dramatically. That’s the key to aging. When you are younger
cells are faster and we are able to do alot more than when we get older.

And this googles from the Vedic Library…

Who are you? What is a person? Like most people, you’ve probably filled out
all kinds of forms, answering questions about who you are. Institutions like
hospitals or schools and oh, just about everybody is always asking who you
are, okay? And they always, give you these forms and you have this form that
says, “What is your age? “How old are you?”, “What color are you?” and you
know, “What is…” whatever other identities you’ve got, they want to know about
them, okay. They want to know who you are. So you write down, “I’m 30 years
old. I’m black. I’m a librarian. I’m female,” okay. All these different
labels based upon your body, okay? Your body is 28 years old, so you say, “I’m 28
years old.” Your body’s black so you say, “I am black.” Or your body’s white,
so you say, “I’m white,” okay. You have all these different labels on your
body, okay. So when people ask you who you are, you answer according to these
labels, right? Isn’t that what people…

“How old are you?”
“I’m 28.”
“Why are you 28?”
“Because my body is 28 and I’m my body.”

In other words, most people identify themselves with their material body.
They identify themselves with their physical body, okay? The problem with this
is that are you sure that you are really your body?
No? Then join the Heidegger discussion list. You will be in good company for
they not only dont know who they are - they are even unsure as to whether
they actually exist either.

Posted on Sunday, April 27th, 2008 at 7:30 pm
comment | rss 2.0 | trackback