Problem Set 09

Problem Set 09

1. The Problem of Personhood

If persons are a natural class and by talking about persons as we so often do we thereby 'carve nature up at the joints', then it ought to be possible to give a finite set of individually necessary and jointly sufficient conditions on being a person--a list, that is to say, of all and only the essential features a person must have to be a person. Give such a list in a long essay, carefully justifying each item. To what extent and in what ways are the cognitive capacities whose computability we've been investigating all semester presupposed by the items on your list? Are there any items on your list not ultimately grounded in the cognitive functions of our long-standing discussion? If so, what cognitive functions would they presuppose, do you think? (30)

2. The Problem of Personal Identity

Recall that the solution space for the general problem of personal identity, person A = person B iff ___?___ secures sameness of persons in terms of the possible other kinds of sameness of which persons might admit. To wit, personal identity might be secured by:

  1. Bodily identity: person A = person B iff A and B have the same body.
  2. Memory identity: person A = person B iff A and B have the same memories.
  3. Psychological identity: person A = person B iff A and B have the same total psychology, including beliefs, desires, intentions, dispositions, personalities, and so forth.
  4. All of the above: person A = person B iff A and B have the same body, the same memories, and the same total psychology.
  5. None of the above: person A = person B iff A and B have the same X-factor, where the X-factor is neither body, memories, nor total psychology--soul perhaps, or some other non-physical and non-psychological feature.

Personal identity is profoundly problematic because the above solutions exhaust the solution space, yet none of the possible solutions is immune to counterexample. Every possible solution is thus, it seems, unsatisfactory.

In a long essay, briefly explain the counterexample(s) we gave to reject each solution as if to an otherwise intelligent freshman who has not yet encountered the problem. (20)