John Clark wrote:
After they diverge they will still both identify with the same person, John Clark, HOWEVER they no longer will identify with each other, and both would consider their life to be more important than that other fellow who happened to have the same name. Before they diverged things would be very different, there would be no other fellow, there would only be one.
That is an eminently sensible statement. It accords well with the "closest continuer" theory of personal identity. According to that theory, if there is a tie for being the *closest* continuer, as in this case, the initial person does not continue, but two new persons are created. If the duplicate is identical to the original in every respect, there is only one person -- identity of indiscernibles and all that. JC is correct, there would be no 'other fellow'.
Once the copy diverges from the original, there are two different (new) persons. They may share some memories, but so what? People often share memories. Neither is the original person.
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