X-Message-Number: 14156
Date: Sun, 23 Jul 2000 14:16:33 -0500
From: david pizer <>
Subject: You are the same person through time

Dave pizer:  The same person does exist throughout his/her lifetime.

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We would all agree:

Everything in the universe is in the process of change at any time.  

Therefore, the only things that exist are things that are in the process of
changing.  

Therefore, the definition of existence (whatever that turns out to be) must
include the concept of change in it. 


Or to put it another way: If we say that anything that changes cannot exist
than, then we would have to say that nothing exists. 

We know that not to be true.  ("I babble on CryoNet, therefore I am." ect.)

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THEREFORE: Since we (and everything else that exists) are always changing,
there is no reason due to "change" that our future (changed) selves and
also our past (changed) selves along with our present (changing) selves
can't be the same person.  There is no reason due to "change" that an
evolving person is not a surviving person.  

So people who give examples of a person being different each second of
his/her live are not giving evidence of non-survival.

That's why I like to use the concept of continuous in any definition of self. 

 A person is a self-aware continuum (or a series of processes ever
changing) while being the same person.

A rock is ever changing while being the same rock.

A building is ever changing while being the same building.

Dave

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