Essay Sample on Human Identity

Introduction

A significant part of the body that most philosophers think determines the personality or personal identity of any human being is the brain. This part of the body determines the characteristics that form the behavior of an individual. The brain is important to any human because it controls not only the physical body but also the way people think, talk and behave. For example, when a person loses a leg or an arm it is not deemed that the succeeding individual is different from the original human. Secondly, if the same individual has a kidney transplant one cannot say that the replacement made that person different. Human identity can be explained by various theories. One such theory is the theory of dualism, which claims that the physical and the mind of an individual are different in that the mental substance is what makes the human identity. Discussions about the theory of dualism and its relation to human identity have given most philosophers the intellectual pressure to try and unify this view. Therefore, this essay will dwell on the theory of dualism, with the assumptions made on the physical world and then consider arguments as to why the mind is the sole creation of human identity, as well as why the mind cannot be considered part of the world.

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Most people when they think of the nature of the mind encounter the problem of whether the mind can actually survive when the body dies. According to most religious doctrines, there is a possibility that the mind survives, and this plays the unambiguous role that the body and mind constitute different substances. However, it would be a mistake to imagine that the modern controversies on the nature of the mind can turn on this possibility. Although in dualism, there is a view that the mental phenomena is nothing but a physical phenomenon, and are about the presence of disembodied spirits. However, there has not been any serious evidence that a people should actually survive after the dissolution of the physical body. These purported experiences or memories of events that take place before a person dies are not considered evidence of a disembodiment as compared to the dreams that many humans have of seeing themselves do several things. However, there arises a problem with disembodied souls that is the problem of human identity. The question that arises is whether what makes a human being the same [person over time is the persistence of the same body. Supposing a person's cells in the body were dying and there was a possibility of replacing them one by one, then it is arguable that if the replacement was done extensively, then the human would still be the same person but with a new body. This according to Locke (210) is what people envision when they think of reincarnation.

Others will argue that if it is not the body that makes the person be the same, then it is the character traits and memories that person has which is purely psychological. However, these memories come and go after a period of time, as most people have vivid imaginations about their childhoods, as others have trouble remembering the things they did even a week earlier. Certainly, it is evident that people's characters and interests change as they grow from childhood to adulthood. At this point, one would wonder what remains the same and in particular, the things that underlie the unusual attachment and concern one has about the past life as well as the distant future. Traditionally, there were discussions that seek to explain the relationship between the physical phenomenon and the mental phenomenon. This further seeks to find out how any ordinary material thing could present the phenomenon of consciousness, intentionality or rationality. According to Locke (212) consciousness alone can create self. This is to mean that human identity consists of consciousness, and extending this consciousness backward on past thoughts or actions creates the identity of a person. Furthermore, the consciousnesses of past and present actions are the same human to whom they belong. However, this doctrine has consequences in that if this consciousness is transferred to other beings, which Locks (218) tends to think is possible, then it means that those people are the same. In addition, if the intelligent person loses consciousness of all the actions they had done, then they seize to be the same person that those similar things. This means that an intelligent person can be more than two or even twenty persons if they often forget the actions they did earlier.

According to Conee and Theodore (367), the author found out that the continuity of memory and brain is not always enough to guarantee personal or human identity. The study did not also show that continuity of memory and brain was totally dispensable. Other thought experiments, however, show that there is whatsoever no contradiction in this supposition. That is a person can acquire a completely new body including a new brain as claimed by many religious accounts. For example to say that a body sitting at the desk belongs to a person means two things. First, the person can move parts of the body like the legs and arms without doing other intentional actions, and they can also make some differences to physical objects by only moving parts of the body. When a person holds the door handle and turns their hands, they open the door. By bending their legs and stretching, they kick the ball and shoot towards the net. However, the person does not turn their hands or bend their legs by doing other intentional actions. Secondly, it means that the knowledge a person has about the states of the world outside their body is purely derived from the effects of that body. This also means that people learn the positions of several physical objects by seeing them which involves the reflections of light rays which impinge on a person's eye and sets up impulses in the optic nerve. In this regard, the body is the vehicle of agency in an individual's knowledge of the world.

However, it is not rational to presume that a person can find out that their present body did not serve this function, or they could not acquire material information through their eyes or even move their limbs, but instead learn that another body also served the same purpose. They might find themselves acquiring information and move limbs, which means they would totally have a new body. If these two bodies were occupants of the earth, then this would be considered a case of reincarnation. For a body that was an occupant of another planet, this would be considered a case of resurrection. This is supported by most Western religions like Islam, Judaism, and Christianity. The argument is whether it is rational to suppose that an individual can exist with a completely new body and with no body (Perry, 448). Further, the argument extends to whether a person can exist without any memory of his past doings. Quite clearly, the logical possibility that is being allowed is amnesia that is when a person forgets certain or all stretches of their previous life. According to Locke (213), it is certain that a person will forget much of what they had done. However, it is only supposed that this will happen in cases where there is a possibility of the brain and bodily continuity. This notion is on the grounds that a person will forget suggests that this person was the preceding person who did things that he can now not remember.

The problem with brain theories is that they are open to duplication objection (Conee and Theodore, 367). A person's brain has two hemispheres that are in a way similar that is the right and left hemisphere. The work of the left hemisphere is to control the body's limbs and to process sensory information that is coming from the left side. The right hemisphere, on the other hand, controls limbs and process sensory information that is coming from the left side. The left hemisphere also plays a vital role in controlling speech. Though the two hemispheres have separate roles in the life of an adult, they interact and work together. This means that if parts of these hemispheres are removed, the roles of the parts taken out are taken over by the other hemisphere. Over time there have been frequent brain operations that remove some parts of the brain. According to Conee and Theodore (370), there is a belief that it one day it might be possible to remove a person's whole hemisphere without having to kill them. However, there is no logical difficulty that one can transplant hemispheres into a skull where removal of the brain had taken place.

For those individuals who after the destruction of their death still have the hope that they will survive death, they might not be disturbed by the thought that they will not have their past memory since they might want to survive and not be interested in remembering anything that they did on earth. Apparently, there are no contradictions from any studies on these beliefs, and it seems to be a rational belief whether justified or not true. Admittedly, there could be beliefs or stories that involve a hidden contradiction, but the fact is that there are no contradictions to these stories or beliefs is a good reason to believe that there is no contradiction in them until some are revealed. In the identity of substance, a substance at a given time is the same as a substance at an earlier period if and only if the two substances have similar forms as well as the continuity of matter with the other substance (Hume, 301). In this regard, an individual is considered to be the same person as the earlier person if they are both people and have the same body. Indeed, to be similar to an earlier person, the later person has to have similar matter constitution. This suggests that a person needs mental capacities that allow them to have conscious experiences and is performing.

Conclusion

In summary, the theory of dualism, which claims that the physical and the mind of an individual are different in that the mental substance is what makes the human identity has been used to explain the theory of personal identity. It may be observed that in this theory that consciousness is mystified with memory. It is believed to be true that the resemblance that an individual did a thing is the evidence that that person is identical to the previous person who did it. It is therefore not strange that the identity or sameness of a person consists a thing that is continually evolving and is at any moment the same. Our memory, our consciousness and any operation of the mind still flow like time or the waters of a river. The consciousness a person has at this moment is not the last they had (Reid, 2). This means that identity can only be confirmed by things that only have continued existence. Consciousness as well as any kind of thought is momentary and transient and has no continued existence. Therefore, if human identity consists in consciousness, then it is certain that no individual is the same person at any two moments in life. In addition, to the justice and right of punishment and reward is founded on an individual's personal identity, then it means that no person can be deemed responsible for their actions.

Works Cited

Conee, Earl, and Theodore Sider. Riddles of Existence: A Guided Tour of Metaphysics: New Edition. OUP Oxford, 2014.Hume, David. A treatise of human nature. Courier Corporation, 2003.

Locke, John. "An Essay Concerning Human Understanding Book II: Ideas."

Retrieved online: http://www. earlymoderntexts. com/assets/pdfs/locke1690book2. pdf (2010).

Perry, John. A dialogue on personal identity and immortality. Hackett Publishing, 1978.

Reid, Thomas. "Of Mr. Locke's account of our personal identity." Personal identity (1975): 113-118.