Tuesday 3 January 2017

Who Am I? - BCOP100

Todays lecture was based around the idea of identity and the unanswered question of 'who am I?' Are we our bodies, or minds, or thoughts, our actions...? As it was heavily philosophy based it was undoubtedly my favourite lecture so far.

Plato

We started by looking at Plato's 'Allegory of the Cave' [1], which in a nutshell conveys the idea that individually we are all under a deception from culture and the influential forces from our environment. If given the opportunity we should break free from the 'cave' to discover new things about the world. Plato believed that this discovery comes from philosophy, and when we think philosophically about things, we learn the real truth about concepts that we had thought that we knew.

This links to the concept of identity, as although we learn new things from experience and the environment, we still continue to be the same person throughout these changes.

The second main concept/theory that we focused on was provided by Plutarch, and his story of Theseus' ship [2]. If Theseus' ship was persevered for 1000s of years and whenever a piece started to degrade it was replaced, then eventually not one piece would remain from the original ship. Then could it still be called 'Theseus' ship'?

I argue no, as I believe that the essence of being Theseus' ship was for Theseus himself to have been on-board it. However, some would try to disregard this idea by applying the same principle to humans: It's a fact that every cell in our body dies and is replaced over the course if 7 years. Therefore meaning that after 7 years, we are not constructed of the same exact material as we were previously. People would use this to say that if we consider ourselves to be the same person as we were 7 years ago, then through the process of deduction, this too must apply to Theseus' ship - even though if ALL parts were replaced, it would still continue to be Theseus' ship. OR they would alternatively argue that if Theseus' ship is NOT the ship 1000s of years after, then this would also apply to us - that we are NOT the same person as we were 7 years ago.

I disagree with this, as I believe that you cannot make the comparison between a ship and something as complex as a human body. Humans aren't just 'material', instead they are much more than that, we are memories, emotions, desires, ambitions, critical thinkers... So although it is a scientific fact that our material bodies change, our thoughts and memories are transient and are timeless. A ship such as Theseus' does not encapsulate such complexity, and the only thing that allows it to become 'Theseus's ship' in the first place is non-physical (the presence of Theseus on-board), and cannot be replicated 1000s of years later.

Therefore I believe that 'I' am all of the things that make me different from other people. Humans all share the same biological make up e.g skeletons and tissue, but these things can be replicated, just like Theseus' boat, therefore 'I' am ALL of the unique qualities and non-physical aspects that others are not.
I am:
- My name (there are not many Heléna's in comparison to more commonly used names)
- My blood type (AB negative, which is the rarest of all blood types - less than 1% of the population has it)
- My appearance - I have blonde hair and blue eyes (both of the recessive genes, and so is less common compared to other hair types and eye colours). Also no two people look the same, and even if I was cloned, then the other traits would not be identical.
- My relationships to others - I am a sister, a daughter, a cousin, a grand-daughter, a friend, a stranger
- My home - I've always lived in Devon
- My history & memories - what I've done, where I've been to school...
- My traits - kind, considerate, patient, creative, happy, thoughtful, reliable...
- I am also all of my mistakes and successes, which make me more resilient and equipped for the future.

However, I am not just one of these things, I am ALL of these things, which all add up and make me 'me' and unlike anyone else.

"Cogito ergo sum" 
"I think therefore I am"
This is the key to all of Descartes' philosophy - I am a thinking thing, and so I exist. 

[1] YouTube (2016). [online]. PLATO ON: The Allegory of the Cave. The School of Life. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWlUKJIMge4 [Accessed on 3rd January 2017]
[2] YouTube (2015). [online]. Who am I? A philosophical enquiry - Amy Adkins. TED-Ed. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHwVyplU3Pg [Accessed on 3rd January 2017]

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