X-Message-Number: 25419
From: 
Date: Mon, 27 Dec 2004 11:21:59 EST
Subject: Theseus, values

The only real value of the Ship of Theseus and similar thought experiments  
is to underline the importance and difficulty of asking the right  question.
 
It is not the right question to ask, "Is it the same ship?" 
 
It is not the right question to ask, "Is X the same person?"
 
The right questions concern what you want (biology of the brain) and  what 

you "ought" to want (cognition applied to biology). They are not simple or  easy
questions, and do not have simple or easy answers. It is not even  guaranteed 
that satisfactory answers exist, although history suggests that  optimism is 
generally helpful.
 
On what can we agree? First, I think the "indiscernible" crowd should  

recognize that there are no indiscernibles--if the question arises at all, then
"two" objects or systems are necessarily distinguishable. Further, it is not  
possible for them to differ only in location, since a difference in location  

must imply other differences as well (although not necessarily important  ones).
 
Secondly, we should all be able to agree that if you overlap your near  
continuer in matter, space, and time, then you survive, at least in part. 
 
Third--and this is the main point--if you expect to survive, even in part,  
then you have a natural, rational basis for value judgments. You can make  

logically rigorous investigations of what you "ought" to do, based on biology  
and 
not on whims or fancies or accidents of conditioning.
 
Robert Ettinger


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