In Tuesday's discussion, we thought about the notion of personal identity, and how it relates to memory. It wasn't long before we ran out of things to talk about, as we pretty much all concluded that we are always us despite changes in our memory.
So the question worth discussing is, how would our identity change if, perhaps by some force of trauma or some Men in Black-esque memory-erasing device, we lost our entire collection of memories through life? Would we still be the same person? If we had to relearn everything, would we ultimately still be the same as we once were?
I think we wouldn't be the same but we would have some of the same thinking.
ReplyDeleteOur character may change depending on the people we're around after having lost our memories. If we're still around the people who knew us beforehand, then there's a good possibility of being or becoming similar to the person we once were. Probably wouldn't be exactly the same, but as long as we still have the same way of thinking or reasoning, we shouldn't turn out much different from who we once were. It may even be a good thing if we still got to hold on to the factual information we already knew, like math and sciences etc..
ReplyDeleteThough if someone was attached to someone, like a spouse, it may be a little difficult to cope with feeling like they are a stranger, but that could also work in their favor depending on the circumstances before having lost the memories. For example, if a once happy couple were about to divorce and had tried all possible ways of working things out, but the past just keeps getting in the way, a memory wipe could bring them back to where they began, which could allow for a new relationship with the same person, assuming our ways of thinking or reasoning don't change.
Pretty much when it comes to anything, we'd get to start an entirely new slate without having any preconceptions about anything we had already done from our past. Doing anything would feel the same as doing something for the first time, which can be good or bad depending on the person and how quick they can learn. If they're lucky and it's something physical they used to do a lot, maybe muscle memory would kick in, assuming that doesn't get erased also.
A person is a person to me. They are the same individual today that they were 20,30,40 years ago. More recently we have finally begun to place a higher price on the older (more experienced if you will) members of society. While they might not always remember their great deeds or accomplishments, that does not mean that they did not occur. We all have to be responsible for pushing the good works of someone to the forefront and remember them for that. I think about people we choose to bestow the Presidents Medal of Freedom to, most are long past their "glory days" but we remember them for what they did, to celebrate and to inspire the future. The mind may go but the memory should not!
ReplyDeleteand to have a little fun, my favorite MIB quote: "1500 years ago, everybody knew that the Earth was the center of the universe. 500 years ago, everybody knew that the Earth was flat. And 15 minutes ago, you knew that people were alone on this planet. Imagine what you'll know tomorrow. "
-Agent K
To answer the question "Would we still be the same person?"
ReplyDeleteI think how we behave and react to specific situations is dependent on our past experiences. What we learned and been through in life impact our personalities. If some parts of these encounters have been erased by memory loss, then their impact on personality would be gone.
For example: an experience in an individual's past that caused trauma, such as being bitten by a dog as a kid. She may no longer have a fear of dogs because a memory caused that fear is eradicated.
I agree with Muna. If our responses depend on our memories of past experiences and then we lose those memories, then we will in turn not behave the same or be the same individual. And no, we could never relearn everything in the exact same way as we had before so of course we would not be the exact same person.
ReplyDelete