Thread: not sure if this post goes here but what do you think

Originally Posted by juroara

In otherwords, this isn't a subject of "brain transplant". This is a subject of "body transplant", not the other way around.

This part I agree with. That's probably a better way to look at it.

Originally Posted by Alyzarin

This is my belief on it. No two brains are exactly the same, neither from development or even right when they're first made. But that's what's important. Your brain grows and regulates itself from the moment you're born as you gain experience, and that changes the way you express yourself and form your beliefs over time. However, every change that has ever happened to you has come from an outside influence impacting that original brain pattern that was unique to you, and every reaction that will ever happen, even those that would come from being placed in a different body, will be an outcome of this same ever-evolving function. Nothing will ever change your overall brain in the exact same way as it would someone else. That's what makes you "you". No matter how differently your views change over time, it will still always be based on the basic blueprint that is your brain. That's how I see it, anyway. You aren't consciously aware of your brain's blueprint, so you can't always see it just based on the views you currently hold, but that doesn't mean it isn't there. And this is something that will not change with a brain transplant, you will still respond to your new body the way YOU would, not the way its old owner would.

An analogy used in philosophy while discussing this may be relevant. Consider a ship that gradually has all of its planks, sails, and other parts replaced over decades. Eventually, no original part of the ship remains. Is it still the same ship? (And to make it more complicated but not relevant to this discussion: if all the old parts were stored in a warehouse, and are later reassembled to make a new ship, which ship is the real original ship? )

I think it's just a matter of opinion. There's no real answer because we're asking for some objective categorization of something that we've only categorized ourselves. We roughly define ourselves to be the people we are, with our personalities, memories, bodies, etc. Usually that's a simple enough answer. Yet we have this false (I believe) sense that we're doing more than categorizing, that we're actually identifying some real definition of 'me', when none exists.

I think I understand your reason for saying we continue as the same person, but again, I think it's arbitrary. It seems like you may just be reacting to that gut feeling that we all have, that your identity has remained the same throughout the changes in your life. So you're defining identity in such a way that you'll always be the same person. I'm not disagreeing, since it seems like a suitable definition, I just don't see why this is an argument.