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Apr 19, 2024
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PHIL 3319 - Identity, Persons, and Other Objects
Credits: 3
Persons and individuals like you and me raise a host of central philosophical questions. You are, we assume, the very same person you were three minutes ago, distinct from all the other individuals on the surface of the planet. But how is that so, and how it is even possible? Persons, just like tables, chairs, and other particular objects, seem to retain their identity through time despite the changes they go through: they persist and survive change. Does this mean each particular person (and each particular table) has a very specific essence it keeps throughout its life? What exactly constitutes a person? And what do we mean by identity anyway, in this context? And what of the powerful arguments suggesting that persons (and other objects) cease to exist whenever they go through the most trivial change, or that the existence of persons and other objects is a mere illusion? This course will consist in a systematic survey of some of the central answers to some of these and other related questions.
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