ext_8127 ([identity profile] cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com) wrote in [personal profile] simont 2005-07-25 12:40 pm (UTC)

Partly it's munging with definitions of words. In casual conversation "Who are you?" is adequately answered by who you are in relation to them. Eg. "Simon T" or "Simon T, Putty-guy" or "Simon T, cool-games-guy" or "Sue, so-and-so's girlfriend" or "Mr blah, your lawyer" or whatever.

In philosophic conversation, what does the question mean? Probably "What defines you as opposed to someone else?" to which the sum of experience you describe is a reasonable answer.

However, I sumbit that the question is inadequate in that it fails with some scifi innovations. If I'm teleported I don't have positional continuity, am I me? Most people would say yes. But if I was teleported to two places, most people would say they both couldn't be me. The concept of 'me' breaks down, and needs refining into overlapping concepts.

For some definitions of 'me' I'm the same person as 5 years ago. For others, I'm not. We need to refine the definition before we can asnwer questions about it, else they're limited in meaning.

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