Discussion of Bernard Williams’ “the Self and the Future” and John Perry’s “a Dialogue on Personal Identity and Immortality”

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In this paper, I will explain the overall argument of Bernard Williams’ “The Self and the Future” and relate the discussion to John Perry’s “A Dialogue on Personal Identity and Immortality”. Firstly, I will elaborate on how Williams’ presentations would lead to different intuitions of personal identity. Then I will address the argument presented in Perry’s dialogue about bodily continuity as an account for personal identity. Lastly, I will explain the conclusion drawn from connecting the two pieces discussed, namely bodily continuity is a more plausible account for personal identity. In Williams’ “The Self and the Future”, two thought experiments are proposed. The first thought experiment involves two people, A and B. Both A and B agree to participate in an experiment where the experimenter will put both persons in a machine such that the two persons will exchange bodies. In other words, after the experiment, the A-body-person will be replaced with B’s personal characteristics, psychological dispositions and memories, and the B-body-person will be replaced with A’s personal characteristics, psychological dispositions and memories. Also, another feature of the experiment is that A and B are presented two options. They must choose who they prefer to get $100,000 after the experiment while the other person is to be tortured. Williams argues that under such conditions, “the only rational thing to do… would be to identify oneself with one’s memories… not with one’s body”. Therefore, A should choose that the A-body-person gets the torture while the B-body-person gets the money, vice versa. The second thought experiment proposed by Williams is conveyed through a first-person perspective. The reader is told that he/she will be tortured, and prior to the torture, a set of conditions will be met. The conditions include that the reader will not remember being told that

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