Summary: Area Of Philosophy

Improved Essays
Part One: Area of Philosophy

In the event of the terrible accident on Hooper avenue, the doctors have done medical magic to save the person who was killed by the cement truck by transplanting their brain into the person of the opposite gender who had a stroke upon witnessing this event. While the mere act of even doing this type of transplant would fall under the philosophy branch of ethics, what we are talking about today my friends is what the result of this transplant and how would this person who for now we shall identify as Schwartz, react. How will they live, think, and act in this world? Something that complex falls under both the branches of theory of knowledge and metaphysics. This is the case because are not only dealing with
…show more content…
Socrates’s argument is that the physical body and the mind or soul are two separate aspects of ourselves. Socrates also argues that the soul uses the body as an instrument of perception. That the soul rules the body in the same way that the divine rules the mortals. The proof that as Socrates said our bodies are imperfect, they change, and they die are all around us as we can see with every human being. His ideas that the souls are unchanging and immortal, surviving the death of the body are merely his speculation or interpretation. So with that in mind Socrates believes that Schwartz has the mind of the person hit by the cement truck is now in the body of the person who had the stroke. John Locke’s argument is that the mind is the self is a blank slate on which experience writes. Locke doesn’t believe that the self necessarily exists in one soul or substance. He argues the conscious awareness of the self is itself as a thinking, reasoning, and reflecting identity. Locke also argues that despite physical changes to your body your personal identity remains. He uses the example of cutting off a hand and that separates it from the consciousness of the person who did that. So overall John Locke argues that Schwartz is more like the person who had the stroke because we removed the physical brain from the person who got hit …show more content…
They can’t factor in for trauma that would be caused by first seeing your friend hit by a cement truck, then having a stroke, and lastly having a brain transplant. With all of these being factors it’s almost impossible to say how exactly Schwartz would act once they came out of the operation. Locke’s comparison to a hand too simple in comparison to that of the human brain, even if it’s only one part of the brain. Socrates’s argument of an immortal soul has no physical proof. So we are only left up to our best arguments. Overall it is my belief that Schwartz would be a totally different third person who maybe similar in some ways to both of the previous two people but with the trauma of those three major incidents, there is no way that they can remain as either the first person or the second person. The main advantage I have in my argument over Socrates and John Locke is that we in modern times know more about the human brain and how it changes than we did in their time. Of course both Socrates and John Locke laid the foundation for us to learn more about the human brain. So in conclusion is it my argument that based on the trauma Schwartz would go through, after the body had a stroke, witnessing a friend die, and a brain transplant of some sort, the person that’s comes out of all that would be a very scared and hesitate third

Related Documents

  • Superior Essays

    Analysis of Philosophical Arguments of Self-Identity Who or what is the essence of “you”? What is the difference of your mind versus your body; are they the same or entirely different entities? The answers can have significant meanings for the legal and ethical system, not to mention personal beliefs. The views of Thomas Locke and David Humes will be explored in this paper Thomas Locke wrote immensely about this subject. He set out to describe who “self” is and relate that in a manner which is easily understood.…

    • 1500 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Locke was a philosopher who claimed that personal identity was independent of all substances, including immaterial substances. Locke says that we continue to be the same person over time if we have the same conscious experience over our lifespan, meaning psychological continuity is the criterion for personal identity. He actually has three different criteria for the continuity of people: psychological continuity, meaning the person at the later time is psychologically continuous of the person at the earlier time; consciousness criteria, meaning the person at the later time and the person at the earlier time have the same consciousness; and memory criteria, meaning the person at the later time must remember the experiences of the person at the…

    • 780 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The four theories of personal identity—body theory, soul theory, memory theory, brain theory— are very well discussed in John Perry's book, A Dialogue on Personal Identity and Immortality. In an argument between Gretchen Weirob, Sam Miller, and Dave Cohen, all these theories are put into question in a discussion about the possibility of life after death. Overall, throughout the book , in these discussions it seems as if the body theory wins the argument for having more pros and fewer cons than the memory, brain and soul theories. However, this theory is contradicted and deemed not possible because when the body dies the person identity no longer exists.…

    • 533 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    In the two texts that we read in class, Plato, Phaedo, and Lucretius, Nature of Things, both Socrates and Lucretius try to reassure us that we should not be afraid of death. In Plato, Phaedo, Phaedo is telling the story of Socrates’s final hours from being their first hand. In Lucretius, Nature of Things, Lucretius’s telling his view on religious issues and how he got to his view, poetic skills, and study on scientific phenomena. Both Socrates and Lucretius have different arguments on why we should not be afraid of death. Socrates and Lucretius would have their own responses to each other 's argument if they were to reply to each other.…

    • 1540 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The book, The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, by Sherman Alexie is about a native tribe who go through a lot of difficult things but somehow manage to get through it all. They fight through it all and they preserve their culture. To them, family is the most important as well as their traditions. This book has a lot of interesting topics, such as, how spirituality plays an important role in the novel. They also explain how many of them have been destroyed by drinking and doing drugs at a young age.…

    • 2493 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Socrates begins by dividing up his city into three distinct classes of society. He states that in ideal city consists of producers, auxiliaries, and guardians. The producing class consists of farmers, craftsmen, artisans, and anyone else preforming a trade. The auxiliaries are the warriors of the city, which help keep the city in order. Last, the guardians are the rulers of the city.…

    • 1038 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    John Locke born on August 29, 1632, was an English philosopher who is well known for his theory of mind. In Chapter XXVII: Identity and Diversity, John Locke begins by saying that we only have ideas of three substances which are God, finite intelligence, and bodies. John Locke then goes on to state that personal identity also has to to do with the the string of consciousness and has nothing to do with remaining the same substance or matter which is either physical or mental. John Locke states, “When we consider something as existing at a given time and place and compare it with itself existing at another time, we are led to form the ideas of identity and diversity” (112).…

    • 1572 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    What Strawson is saying is that the mind will not be able to have a conscious without the senses of a living human being as he explains when he stated, “the anti-Cartesian holds, the concept of a mind or consciousness is dependent on the concept of a living person” (30). Without our sense perceptions, you are left with nothing for your mind to think about. In Descartes, ‘Second Meditation: Of the Nature of the Human Mind …’ he believes with the loss of ‘nutrition’, ‘movement’, and ‘sense perception ‘will be the only things he will lose without a body and still can have thought and a conscious mind. How could you still have thought when all of what you think about…

    • 1040 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    It describes the final conversations between Socrates and his close friends before he is put to death. The entire dialogue focuses on the matter of death and what happens to our souls after we die. Socrates presents four arguments to prove the immortality of the soul, one of which is the “Argument from Opposites,” in which he conveys that all things come to be in existence from their opposites. This is Socrates’ first argument that he presents, and although it is supported with great detail, it lacks the support that is necessary to prove that the soul is immortal. Socrates uses an extensive amount of contradictory opposites to support his claim such as sleeping and waking up, and faster and slower, however these do not properly compare to being alive and being dead because they are contrary opposites.…

    • 1169 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Bodily Criterion Accepted In “The Unimportance of Identity” Parfit begins by stating that our concern for our future is not necessarily because it is ours, but because we care about our survival. He believes it has nothing to do with personal identity but with other factors, and he introduces cases where the two have no relation to see what matters. Following an explanation of his account, I will object his view on the bodily criterion, by proving that the ‘new’ person will not be him. Afterwards, I will respond defending Parfit’s rejection, stating that it all boils down to survival and having something left for others and to complete what we could not.…

    • 1491 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Great Essays

    Elizabeth asks how the mind can interact with the body if it lies in a different realm of existence. No part of Descartes’ Meditations has a satisfying answer to how two distinct substances can casually affect one another. Elizabeth’s objection seems devastating at first but the problem it calls into question is not an error of logic from Descartes, but one of insufficient explanation. Descartes in his own rebuttal to her may utterly fail to explain the manner in which the mind interacts with the body despite them being separate substances; but this still does not present any logical error. The fact that the mechanism of the interaction is unknown doesn’t prevent them from interacting or existing as distinct.…

    • 1415 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Superior Essays

    People have always been interested in the idea of finding out about personal identity, what makes you the same person as you were when you were five and what will make you the same person when you are eighty. Derek Parfit summed up this idea by saying “Whatever happens between now and any future time, either I shall still exist, or I shall not. Any future experience will either be my experience, or it will not.” (Parfit- 186), which is what personal identity looks into. This essay will discuss whether personal identity is a matter of physical or psychological continuity, taking into account the famous ideas of philosophers such as John Locke, Derek Parfit and Bernard Williams.…

    • 1500 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    His argument is that the mind is different from the brain, which would be apart of the body; therefore the mind is also different from the body. He comes to this conclusion through the first and second certainties of the external world…

    • 499 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    There is a whole body, and that body has parts; some of which move and other that do not. Socrates uses this analogy to explain that the body is not a single thing, rather is it a collection of different parts.…

    • 725 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    When attempting to solve the problem concerning the immortality of the soul, both Plato and Hume must rely on analogy. Plato, being a rationalist, argues that the soul is immortal and is comparable to a form, for it is invisible and incomposite, unlike material objects. Hume, on the other hand, believes that the soul is mortal and compares souls to perishable objects such as bodies. Although neither analogy can offer any validity, Hume 's argument for the mortality of the soul is far more compelling than Plato 's opposing argument.…

    • 1519 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays