Banno

Definitions do not help.

It seems necessary to point out that having even a very strong, clear memory does not mean that what is remembered is what happened.

This thread is objectionable.

cool post.

There is reification here, to be sure. What is being reified are cups, tables, and kettles. The stuff that our language talks about. If you could find...

You unleash madness.

SO "the kettle is boiling" is an abstraction from "I see the kettle boiling"! This is a new misuse of "abstraction"! But it says nothing about "the ke...

It would remain true even if god did not see it. Perspective is removed in the third person account.

As in, only true in the sense of being true.

right there.

but that is just not true. "The cup is on the table" will only be true if the cup is indeed on the table.

Third person: The cup is on the table. First person: I see that the cup is on the table I believe that the cup is on the table I know that the cup is ...

Enjoy.

Well, perhaps. But there is something you have not mentioned, that for my money is quite central. "I see the cup on the table" is true just in the cas...

Interesting. Can you set out for me the structure of this argument? I don't see a negation, so is it modus ponens? Or is it a hypothetical? Or is it a...

No. If there are memories, as in the cases described above, then the reincarnation can be discovered; evidence collated, explanations assessed and con...

If you accept reincarnation, then is reincarnation arbitrary? If there are memories to link one self to anther, then that's fine. But if there are no ...

Yep.

:-| You wrote the bloody thing.

Yes, it was. What was its relevance? What point are you making?

Hm. Relevance?

Here's the corollary with regard to the self. A self is an individual. So a self is a self because we place it in that role in our language games. Wha...

Here's the contention again: An individual is not identified by a substance or a bundle of properties, but in most cases by our treating the individua...

And we would be us.

http://mathworld.wolfram.com/images/eps-gif/DouadysRabbitFractal_1000.gif Is it a rabbit or a duck?

Who is asking?

Which puts me in mind of Hofstadter's I am a Strange Loop. Chaos theory was once fashionable; and I am rather fond of the idea of a strange loop expla...

X-) But he should see a doctor - he's not himself.

If the truth here is relative, why try to help him regain his memory? Why talk of a "fugue' state? Why point out the abnormality in his brain chemistr...

He got that right. As I suggested to Un, being an individual is something we inflict... using language.

One might think so, if, for example, one wanted to fetishise relativism. He is wrong.

I don't agree. When he thinks he is Johan Ek he is wrong. That is to say, it is Michael Thomas Boatwright who thinks he is Johan Ek. It is not John Ek...

Hence the two solutions I listed, both of which show how to avoid the malformation.

But do you also think he is who he thinks he is? Because that seems to me to be an error.

And now we are starting to talk about individuation, which is the philosophical issue behind reincarnation. Two was of viewing individuation. In the B...

What?

This is an article about Boatwright. When he thinks he is not Boatwwright, he is wrong.

Read Naming and necessity. It's worth it.

Identity is not memory. Loose all your memories - and it is still Rich who can't remember.

So - it is malformed.

Meta appears to think that essences can be used to individuate. Kripke shows that any properties, including those that are called essential, can be re...

Lurking? I thought it the point of the OP... X-)

What? Essential properties are not essences.

That this involves time is a function of hunger, not logic. Hunger changes over time, but "This sentence is both true and false" doesn't.

I had understood that this demonstration was much the same as that used to show that individuation requires substance. I apologise for mischaracterisi...

Of course you can, if you so choose. X-)

That's exactly it!

Did you notice my post about John? Isn't identity something we inflict, rather than something we discover?

OK, so being a bit more obvious: there is a difference between "I see the cup on the table" and "The cup is on the table". How do you characterise tha...