Quote:
Originally Posted by davidm
To be more precise:
Quote:
Originally Posted by wstewart
What then is the "same underlying substance" that remains throughout the unfelt time-gap, with the functional power to pass Old Paul to New whenever the time-gap ends?
Bone?
Water?
Pneuma?
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The brain.
The brain is rearranged by the crippling coma, but in actuality, this happens to us every second of every day. Every moment I have an experience, rearranging my brain. Still, I retain a sense of personal continuity; in the case of Old Paul, personal continuity is obliterated and New Paul emerges with a clean slate. But they share the same brain. So we have an objective link between the two, though we may rightly regard them as two different persons. |
"Every second of every day" there is at least
passive awareness to provide a functional continuity to the individual's subjective existence. This corresponds roughly with James' "felt time-gaps", which are at least dimly perceived.
This functional continuity is lost in the Old/New Paul scenario. Hence the unfelt time-gap.
More to the point: The scenario's unfelt time-gap removes the functional continuity you count upon in daily life. By design. In this scenario Old Paul's injury has disabled functions that sustain thought, subjectivity and personal identity, or your "personal continuity". The functions are temporarily... gone. In their absence there is no functional link in the brain - only the non-functional "substance".
If you assert that non-functional "substance" - brain or other - can actively pass Old Paul to New, you'll be arguing for something that I cannot distinguish from magic. Is that where you're going?