I like the concept of memories helping to build the self, but what about the self in the present moment? The self that is actively forming memories? I wouldn’t argue we are recalling memories actively at all times. As for myself, I tend to think intuitively more often than not. I think we all experience the world in a unique way determined by our “selves”. This may be constructed and patched by memories, but I think there is something to be said about consciousness as a “filter”, directing how we think and feel about experience, thus memories. This isn’t something we get to choose, necessarily, unless you think we do get to choose our dispositions, desires, etc.
It also begs the question, are those who share many of the same memories (siblings, great friends, etc.) closer to being the same person? Some of the closest people to me are vastly different than myself. Many will probably agree that they have met individuals who are much like themselves or someone else they know despite living entirely different lives.
The boy in Reid’s Brave Officer thought experiment is described as having “robbed an orchard” - which always made me think that’s why the officer was like “who, me? I was never THAT kid!”
"Have I changed?" is a naive question because time IS change: the passage of time has always been measured by something changing: the sun moving; a candle burning down; a pendulum swinging; and most recently, an atom vibrating. If all measuring devices stopped changing, the idea of time would have no meaning.
So if we experience time, we also experience change. That change may not be obvious in the short term, in the way that an arc looks like a straight line from close up.
Lastly, don't fall into the binary trap that some is either A or not-A. We can be the same in some respects and changed in other ways.
Insightful Article with Couple of Deep and Pertinent Questions...
I like the concept of memories helping to build the self, but what about the self in the present moment? The self that is actively forming memories? I wouldn’t argue we are recalling memories actively at all times. As for myself, I tend to think intuitively more often than not. I think we all experience the world in a unique way determined by our “selves”. This may be constructed and patched by memories, but I think there is something to be said about consciousness as a “filter”, directing how we think and feel about experience, thus memories. This isn’t something we get to choose, necessarily, unless you think we do get to choose our dispositions, desires, etc.
It also begs the question, are those who share many of the same memories (siblings, great friends, etc.) closer to being the same person? Some of the closest people to me are vastly different than myself. Many will probably agree that they have met individuals who are much like themselves or someone else they know despite living entirely different lives.
The boy in Reid’s Brave Officer thought experiment is described as having “robbed an orchard” - which always made me think that’s why the officer was like “who, me? I was never THAT kid!”
"Have I changed?" is a naive question because time IS change: the passage of time has always been measured by something changing: the sun moving; a candle burning down; a pendulum swinging; and most recently, an atom vibrating. If all measuring devices stopped changing, the idea of time would have no meaning.
So if we experience time, we also experience change. That change may not be obvious in the short term, in the way that an arc looks like a straight line from close up.
Lastly, don't fall into the binary trap that some is either A or not-A. We can be the same in some respects and changed in other ways.