Application of Reductionism in Resolving the Problem of Personal Identity

Personal Identity
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Institutional Affiliation
Personal Identity
Introduction
The problem of personal identity and its associated frustrations has been a historical concern for philosophers. Personal identity confronts the ultimate questions of human existence and attempts to provide answers to rather mundane but complex questions such as who were we, and if there is life after death (Olson, 2021). Nevertheless, this sort of analytical approach to personal identity offers sufficient and critical conditions for understanding the identity of persons over time. It is a concept about oneself that keeps evolving throughout one’s life. This way of thinking introduces the concept of persistence of existence across time and how much can be proven. The important question to philosophers here includes what it takes for a person to persist from one time to the other or simply, to continue existing instead of ceasing to exist. Out of fear or hope that our lives may continue to exist after we die, the question of persistence remains a philosophical quagmire (Perry, 1978). For instance, John Locke talks of personal identity and the existence of consciousness after one has died. According to Locke’s description, personal identity is a psychological continuity, which is founded on consciousness rather than on either matter of body or soul (Olson, 2021). However, in a dialogue on the personal identity between Gretchen Werob and her two friends, Sam Miller and Dave Cogen, John Perry presents the implications that it is unnecessary to exist after death without personal identity (Perry, 1978). Modern philosophy of mind has labeled the conundrum of personal identity as a diachronic problem. This classification differs from the synchronic problem, which is based on the question of the traits or features that define a person at one time (Nimbalkar, 2014). Developments and inquiries into this problem of personal identity have resulted in several theories, including John Locke’s theory of personal identity. Other theories that have attempted to resolve the problem of personal identity include the simple view, reductionism (general, psychological, and physiological), and quasi-psychology. In this paper, I will attempt to apply reductionism in resolving the problem of personal identity.
Theory of personal identity: Reductionism
The problem of personal identity has remained to be a question of sufficient conditions, especially when a person is said to be identical at a given period to another person existing during a different time. Reductionism attempts to offer the criteria to this problem from the perspective that personal identity can be reduced and therefore, divisible. The opposite to reductionism is non-reductionism approaches such as the Cartesian theory (Olifer, 2021). There are two forms of reductionism approach: physical and psychological. In the psychological criterion to personal identity, an individual’s identity over time consists in the holding of the relation of psychological continuity between a person across time. This criterion may exist in the form of continuity of consciousness, continuity of memories, and mental consciousness. Using the physical criterion, philosophers have employed spatial and ...