On Fri, 31 Mar 2000, John Clark wrote:
> Mark Gubrud <mgubrud@squid.umd.edu> Wrote:
>
> >Each of us exists AT THE PRESENT MOMENT as a unique physical
> >construction of atoms.
>
> That happens to be true, but it expresses no profound truth, it's just
an accident
> of history. No reason to expect it always to be true.
The truth expressed here is sufficiently profound that you missed it
entirely. I did not mean that we each exist now as a unique physical
construction of atoms, but might at some future time exist as something
else. I meant that the meaning of the phrase "our existence as persons"
is absolutely unambigous ONLY in reference to the existence of our unique
bodies AT THIS TIME, and any attempt to extend this to an existence
extended in time as a "unique individual" is problematic. The claim that
"I am one person who is living one life" is sufficiently well-justified in
terms of physical facts as long as you don't start messing with Xeroxes or
uploads. However, there is no way you can extend this to the latter
cases, without opening the door to all kinds of paradoxes and ambiguities
which make it clear that the claim, to the extent that it modifies a bare
description of physical facts, is either meaningless, or false.
> > It is possible to say this, but that does not make it
unambiguous. For
> >example, what if you make two copies simultaneously? Which one,
> >then is "you"?
>
> Only one way to tell, ask them. I'll bet you already know what they'll say.
They will both claim to be the original person. Which shows that the
claims of either one are either false or meaningless (I say the latter).
Ditto if only one copy is made.
> Your entire paragraph of rhetorical questions, that I'll reframe from
quoting,
> can be answered if you just stop thinking of yourself as a noun. You are
> an adjective, an adjective modifying matter.
I am not an noun or an adjective, I am a human being, and human beings are
physical objects, made of matter. Show me a counterexample if you differ.
--Mark
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