Personal identity is physical

Question 1

What is the physicalist view on personal identity?

Answer 1

.Identity must be physical
.You cannot do without your brain and still be a functioning person since you would have no memory, thoughts or personality.
.The neurons in the cerebral cortex are never replaced so the brain retains its identity of the neurons in the cerebral context.
.To be the ‘same-person’ throughout life depends also on the spatio-temporal continuity of a functioning body and brain. your body will of course change but your brain will occupy a unique location in space and time throughout its life.

Question 2

What is the physicalist view on life after death?

Answer 2

1)There is no contuining perosnal existanace of life after death
-The body and brain decay after death and no longer exist in any kind of recognisable form
-russell sees the self as bound up with what happens in the brain so cannot entertain the idea of an existance that outlines its dissolution
-Science and tech may allow us to survive our death (cryonics)

2)The christian concept of bodily resurrection
-Will resurrection be spiritual or bodily? (Jesus’ was bodily however there is the issue of bodies rotting yet God is omnipotent so it would be entirely possible for him to resurrect us bodily.

Question 3

What is Hick’s replica theory?

Answer 3

.Hicks view is that the Christian concept of God is in principle verifiable due to eschatological verification.
.Hick is a monist and believes there is only one substance, a ‘body-soul’ in which body and soul are unified so when we die God must raise all of us since we are just one substance.
.Since the body decays it is not possible for the original body to be resurrected with bodily identity so what is resurrected is a perfect replica.
.The resurrected person would live in the resurrection world and be the ‘same person’ who had died.