There is No Captain Kirk: A Theory of Universal Lack of Personal Identity :: Identity Essays

There is No Captain Kirk: A Theory of Universal Lack of Personal Identity There are multiple ways to interpret the second scenario provided to us. In general, the Captain Kirks in scenario two are either identical or they are not. Since we know that anything can only be numerically identical to itself, we also know that the two Kirks are not numerically or perfectly identical to each other. Thus, the question we are left with is: how are the two Kirks identical and how are they not? In the first scenario, we only witness that there is only one Captain Kirk throughout, therefore we make the assumption that the Kirk on the surface of the planet and the one that stood on the transporter platform are numerically identical to each other and that they are in fact the same Kirk. In the second scenario, the two Kirks that we witness are identical in respects to body, brain, memory, and functionality. However, there are many reasons that these factors do not make the two Kirks the same person. The two Kirks appear to be identical physically. This is known as bodily identity, which is in short, the theory that you are your body and that wherever your body goes there you are. Daniel C. Dennett refutes this theory in â€Å"Where Am I?† using the following argument: If Tom and Dick switch brains, Tom is the fellow with Dick’s former body – just ask him; he’ll claim to be Tom, and tell you the most intimate details of Tom’s autobiography. (See Endnote 1) John Perry also discusses this in â€Å"A Dialogue on Personal Identity and Immortality†: Weirob: And would you reason conversely also? If there were in this bed Barbara Walter’s body – that is, the body you see every night on the news – would you infer that it was not me, Gretchen Weirob, in the bed? Miller: Of course I would. How would you have come by Barbara Walter’s body? Weirob: But then merely extend this principle to heaven, and you will see that your conception of survival is without sense.