PHIL 11001
12-01-99
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| Jessica Wallace
PHIL 11001 12-01-99 |
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| Who Am I? | |||||||||||||||||
| �I don�t know these people. Where am I? Somebody has taken all of my stuff. I�m scared.� These are the words repeated over and over again, day after day, by my grandmother. Grandma has Alzheimer�s disease, defined as a progressive degenerative disease that attacks the brain. This disease has damaged her brain cells causing changes in her personality and behavior, as well as the impairment of her memory. Although it is common for one to lose one�s memory as one gets older, it is not common for one�s brain cells to be completely destroyed. Therefore, Alzheimer�s is a debilitating disease that affects communicating, learning, thinking, and reasoning. | |||||||||||||||||
| While thinking of how this disease has affected my grandmother�s life, I contemplate the idea of the personal identity issue. Who is my grandmother now? What is it that establishes her personal identity? Does it even exist now that she is no longer the same person she was years ago? It is quite obvious that both mentally and physically she has changed over the years. She can no longer live on her own. She cannot perform everyday tasks such as bathing herself, dressing appropriately, or preparing a meal. Her memory has run thin as well. Not only can she not remember events on the short-term, but also her long-term memory has begun to fail. Only by reminder can she remember the house she raised her children in, or the fun times she and I had shared while I was growing up. Photographs are her only link to her childhood. Letters that she has saved throughout the years trigger memories of close friends. Even some members of the family she no longer recognizes as a result of this disease. | |||||||||||||||||
| There are two criteria of identity; there is mental continuity, and bodily continuity. John Locke says it is the memory that determines who we are. He uses the example of the prince and the cobbler. A prince lives in a castle and wakes up one morning in the body of a cobbler. He has the mental continuity of the prince, yet the body of a cobbler. Who is he? Locke says that he is still the prince for he has carried those memories with him. Therefore, Locke believes that it is not the body that is critical in determining who one is; it is simply the mind, the memories. Joseph Butler, on the other hand, believes that it is the body that determines identity. He critiques Locke�s view by saying that consciousness cannot constitute personal identity because what happens when one forgets? Thus, Butler says that since one forgets, one then distorts the past, causing the individual to become a different person. Memories are always evolving; they do not supply a constant that one can follow to determine identity. The body provides a more stable concept to grasp. Many often judge and identify a person based on one�s physical appearance. If, for example, one was at a crowded mall and spotted a friend in the crowd, one has done this by recognizing the friend�s physical appearance; one has not identified him by his mental components. To Butler, it is the body that determines personal identity. | |||||||||||||||||
| Yet, in my grandmother�s case, how can one say that either of these is true? Technically speaking, physically she is no longer the same person. Not only has age changed her outward appearance, but under the surface, her brain has undergone physical changes as well. An autopsy would prove this by the discovery of abnormal structures in her brain called tangles and plaques. As they accumulate, they cut off nerve cell connections. If time permits, these structures can literally take over the entire brain, obviously impairing the infected individual. With this in mind, I rule out the physical continuity theory of the personal identity issue. Physically, she is no longer the same person she had been throughout her entire life. Her brain does not function as it has in the past. Even her facial expressions have been transformed. She carries with her now and almost �dazed and confused� look rather than her characteristic alertness and quirkiness she possessed most of her life. | |||||||||||||||||
| Obviously, her memories have been marred. As mentioned previously, she has no recollection of her past. The present hardly exists to her due to the fact that her short-term memory has been destroyed by the tangles and plaques in her brain. She sits in her room and repeats the same things over and over again throughout the day. Hallucinations have caused her to become paranoid. Her trust in us has vanished because, at times, she truly may not know who we are. On account of this memory loss, she has distorted the past, making up stories or events that had never happened. Ultimately, she has become a different person. This is evident simply by observation of her over the years. Accordingly, the mental continuity can be ruled out too. | |||||||||||||||||
| If she cannot be identified by her mental and physical continuity, then what is it that determines her personal identity? Does she even have one anymore? Does anyone, for that matter have one absolute thing that is maintained, completely unchanged, throughout one�s entire life that can determine his or her personal identity? I tend to agree with David Hume. He believes that there is no �I,� it is simply an illusion. When one looks inward, he says one finds an array of constantly moving emotions that are disconnected and indistinct. �All we are are a bundle of perceptions.� There is nothing in our consciousness that is permanent. Given this continuous change, Hume says we are not really ourselves. In order to possess the idea of self, one must continue to be the same throughout his or her life. This is not possible, because in reality, people are changing and aging every day. As one lives his life, he learns lessons that often times changes his behavior. He experiences many things throughout his life that shapes him. It is clear that one is not the same exact person he was the day he was born. One�s life revolves around change. | |||||||||||||||||
| Consequently, there is no constant substance that one can use to determine personal identity. The body undergoes many changes throughout life, as does the mind. On account of this change one cannot be said to truly have personal identity. Thusly, my grandmother has no personal identity, and she will be found asking the ever-pondering question: �who am I?� | |||||||||||||||||
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