Stathis Papaioannou wrote:
On Friday, June 26, 2015, meekerdb <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:On 6/25/2015 11:24 AM, Stathis Papaioannou wrote:ISTM there's an equivocation here between a continuation in consciousness and continuation in body. If we say "the person" is just a continuum of conscious thoughts, then they are both continuations of the original. If we take into account the physical instantiation then we can say which is the original (assuming he's not destroyed and reconstructed in the duplication process) even though they are both continuations, by different means, of the original. Surely continuation in consciousness is what we mean when discussing personal identity. The atoms making up my body last year have mostly dispersed in the biosphere, but I don't consider that a great loss.That's a logic chopping answer. Sure the atoms have dispersed, but the physical structural relations have persisted and these are not the same as conscious thoughts.But the main reason we care about the physical structural relations persisting is that they ensure continuity of consciousness. If the physical structure was mostly preserved but the subject was unconscious or radically different in consciousness then we would say he had not survived, whereas if the physical structure were different, for example if the brain were replaced with a computer, but consciousness similar then we (or at least I) would say that the subject had survived.
The philosophical and metaphysical issues are deeper than this. I refer you to the ancient Indian Tale "The Transposed Heads", especially as retold in the novella by Thomas Mann.
"The fact that Mann did not refer to a faithful translation of the original tale but has referred to and is influenced by a revaluation of it becomes a relevant factor in our reading of The Transposed Heads, because an interpretation and a revaluation is necessarily a view point, depicting a particular philosophy of life exposing an aspect of truth and reality. A symbolic reinterpretation is a value judgment and not an unbiased statement of fact. Mann, therefore, not only endeavours to retell an ancient tale but analyses the logical and metaphysical implications posed by the story. He imposes on the tale an extension to prove his point. If the original tale ends with a solution to the riddle, he carries the solution to its logical extremes to show its implications. If the head is superior to all organs, and the man with the husband’s head becomes the husband, what happens to the body? Is life so mechanically conceived that one can transpose heads without it leading to serious repercussions? Can life go on as before after that? Does the head not impose its temperament upon the body? What about the woman, who is aware of the husband body living elsewhere? Can she tacitly accept such a solution to the problem without reacting to it? All these questions are implicitly posed and an attempt is made to seek answers to them in Mann’s version. Girish Karnad claims to be influenced by Mann’s rendering of the story rather than the original Katha Sarit Sagara story. Mann, in his turn had referred to Zimmer’s version. Thus Karnad’s recasting of the story is many times removed from the original.
"Mann retells the tale from a metaphysical, yet ironic viewpoint. He strongly reacts to the axiomatic assumption that there is a dichotomy between spirit and life, mind and body. An ironic vision of life, skepticism and cynicism are typical features of the 20th century mind. Combined with this is the modern man’s search for identity in the context of an ancient past, in myths and legends. Mann, with his ironic revaluation of an ancient tale tries to search for relevance in time honoured values. He, like many 20th century writers felt the necessity of reshuffling the present scale of values and meanings by constantly juxtaposing them with older ones."
From a discussion of the tale and Mann's retelling, by Pratibha Umashankar.
http://www.museindia.com/viewarticle.asp?myr=2012&issid=41&id=3068 Bruce -- 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 [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
