Re: Why I am I?

[Brent Meeker]

Stathis Papaioannou wrote: 2009/12/3 soulcatcher☠ <soulcatche...@gmail.com>: On Thu, Dec 3, 2009 at 3:55 AM, Stathis Papaioannou <stath...@gmail.com> wrote: If you were Elvis and Elvis were you, what difference would that make to anything? That would make a huge difference for me and Elvis - my (and his) subjective experiences would be very different. And, as these experiences are by definition "private and ineffable" (is it right?), that would make no difference for anything but me and Elvis. Sorry, maybe I just don't understand your question ... OK, let's leave Elvis out of it since he is dead. Suppose you and I switch places. What would change? To find out, I'll just wave my hands in a special magical way and - poof! - it's done. You now have my mind and body, while I have your mind and body. So really it isn't the original me writing this, it is the original you, who only thinks he is the original me since he has my mind and body; and over there it isn't the original you reading this, but the original me who only thinks he is the original you. Do you see the problem in the above exchange? It assumes there is some metaphysical "me" and "you" that can be conceptualised as flitting about from one body and mind to another. But such a notion seems to me absurd, meaningless, worse than wrong. Exactly.  It is the magical "I" that is swapped. Brent -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To post to this group, send email to everything-l...@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to everything-list+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list?hl=en.