Abstract:
Thoughts and theories about personal identity have created many puzzles throughout its long history.
In the first section of this essay I will therefore try to clarify what we mean by the concept of personal identity.
I then summarize the three main accounts which are predominant in the contemporary discussion in this area, namely the psychological continuity account,
the bodily continuity account and the simple view, and apply them directly to the question we are looking at: Were you once a foetus?
By using a famous thought experiment from Williams I will evaluate how our intuitive reactions can lead us to wrong conclusions about personal identity.
In my opinion these misjudgements can be rectified though by understanding that our mental life is at the core of personhood,
but that we can only persist if there is a body that supports these states and which is continuous over time.
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foetus.doc