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QLDPhilosophy and ReasonQuick questions
Unit 4: Moral philosophy and metaphysics
Quick questions on Personal identity and persistence over time: QCE Philosophy and Reason
6short Q&A pairs drawn directly from our worked dot-point answer. For full context and worked exam questions, read the parent dot-point page.
What is the persistence question?Show answer
The question of personal identity over time asks: what makes a person P2 at a later time the same person as P1 at an earlier time? This is not about feeling similar but about numerical identity, being one and the same individual. It matters because responsibility, promises, punishment, anticipation and self-concern all presuppose that the future person is me.
What is the soul criterion?Show answer
A soul criterion says you persist because the same immaterial soul persists, regardless of bodily change. It accompanies substance dualism. Objection (pressed by Locke): we have no way to track souls; if souls could be swapped without any noticeable change, the criterion gives no usable account of identity and detaches it from everything we care about.
What is parfit?Show answer
Derek Parfit, in Reasons and Persons (1984), uses fission cases to argue a striking conclusion: in such cases there is no determinate answer to whether you survive, and that is fine, because identity is not what matters. What matters is psychological continuity and connectedness (Relation R), which can hold to a duplicate. If so, much of our self-concern and even our fear of death may rest on a confusion. Parfit thought this conclusion, though counterintuitive, was liberating.
What is q1?Show answer
Explain Locke's memory criterion of personal identity. [3 marks]
What is q2?Show answer
Explain Reid's brave officer objection. [3 marks]
What is q3?Show answer
State Parfit's conclusion from fission cases. [3 marks]
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