Events & News
Cog Sci Brown Bag Seminar
| Category | Lecture |
| Date | Friday, April 17, 2009 |
| Time | 12:00 pm |
| Location | GS 906 |
| Speaker | Jenann Ismael |
| Title | Associate Professor |
| Affiliation | Dept of Philosophy, UA |
Nations and Egos (Nations have their ego, just like individuals. James Joyce)
A recently popular strategy for understanding identity of self over time exploits an analogy with systems like nations, armies or companies. Just as the existence of these institutional organizations as temporally extended entities doesn’t require the existence of a substantial continuant to ground identity over time, so it is suggested, the existence of the self as a temporally extended entity doesn’t require a substantial continuant. An account of this kind is attractive because it removes one of the pressures inclining the man on the Clapham omnibus to Cartesianism. I’m going to explore whether the analogy can be extended to gain some understanding of synchronic identity. Can looking at complex systems like nations or companies shed any light on the question of what unites the thoughts, impressions, and mental activities that properly ascribed to a single self at a time?