On 22 June 2015 at 16:35, Bruce Kellett <bhkell...@optusnet.com.au> wrote:
> 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. The "closest continuer" idea is wrong on many counts. Both copies consider themselves to be the original - both are wrong in your view. But if one copy was 0.1% different from the origina, that copy would not be the continuation of the original, despite thinking that he was, just a bit taller and a bit happier for the experience. On the other hand, if one copy was 1% different and the other 0.1% different, the 0.1% copy would be a continuation of the original. And if the 0.1% copy was in a coma when created, the 1% copy would be the continuer until the 0.1% copy was revived. -- Stathis Papaioannou -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to everything-list+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to everything-list@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
