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Moral Moments

From Here to There: A Phi-Fi Investigation

by Joel Marks

Some say that personal identity is closely connected to memory. However, in an earlier column (‘Who Are You?’ in Issue 61), I commented, “You could suffer amnesia and have the contents of your mind erased, but you would still be you. Why believe that? Well, suppose you knew you were about to suffer total memory loss and then be thrown into a cauldron of boiling oil: would you not feel dread on behalf of yourself?” It is certainly my intuition that I would experience that dread. But I know that not everybody shares my intuition. Do you? Even if you do, an intuition is not a proof.

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