1. The Problem of Personal Identity

2. Do We persist through time?
The Self as Substance Body Identity Soul Identity The Self as Continuity Bodily Continuity Memory Theory
I am the same person as I was and will be, because I’m made out of the same “stuff” I am the same person as I was and will be because I’m continuous with that person

3. Soul theory I am the same individual as long as I have the same soul
Cogito (Cartesian Ego) – The idea that every individual has a permanent, unchanging, essential core self that persists through their entire existence.

4. Objections to Soul Theory
No proof that there are souls Causal interaction problem

5. Body Identity
I am one individual because I have numerically the same body through time
“Sameness” is used in two senses: 1) Qualitative Sameness (e.g. Vanessa and April have “the same” haircut) 2) Numerical Sameness “(e.g. Peter parker is the “same person” as Spiderman)

6. Objections to Body Identity
Higher Brain death (PVS)?
The parts of body change

7. Bodily Continuity
I am one individual because the body I have now is continuous with the body I started with

8. John Locke
Objection to Bodily Continuity: The Case of the Prince and the Cobbler Suppose that the mind of the Prince and the Cobbler switch bodies. Now, who is the person in, say, the Cobbler’s body? The Prince? Or the Cobbler?

9. Memory Theory
I am the same individual as long as I can remember at least something from my past stages
Officer
General
Child

10. Objections to Memory Theory
Officer
General
Child

11. Objections to Memory theory summed up
Amnesia
False Memories
Butler’s objection: I am not who was because I remember being that person; rather, I remember being that person because I was that person

12. But what if there is no such thing as me?

13. Bundle Theory
“You” are nothing but a collection of, somewhat loosely related, perceptions, memories, feelings, etc.
There is no “you” apart from this bundle of related mental contents

14. Enter The Buddha Siddhartha Gautama
Born c. 563 BCE in Lumbini, today in Nepal
Died c. 483 BCE (aged 80) in Kushinagar, today in India 14

15. Sheltered life

16. The Four Passing Sights16

17. Enlightenment

18. The Four Noble Truths 1) Life is suffering (dukkha)
2) The cause of suffering is desire (tanha)
3) The cure for suffering is in overcoming desire
4) The way to overcoming suffering is the eight- fold path 18

19. The eight-fold path
Meditation 19

20. Basic Buddhist Concepts
THE THREE MARKS OF EXISTENCE
Dukka - Suffering
Anicca - The doctrine of impermanence.
Anatta - The doctrine that there is in humans no permanent, underlying substance that can be called the soul, the self, or the ego.
THE ULTIMATE GOAL OF BUDDHISM
Nirvana- The extinction of desire, hatred, and ignorance and, ultimately, of suffering and rebirth. Literally, it means “blowing out” or “becoming extinguished,” as when a flame is blown out or a fire burns out. 20

22. Divided Brains