BEING JOHN MALKOVICH

OUTLINE1. A Very Short Drama, work as a tailor to

Introducing the Moive -- Being John Malkovich

2. Prevailing Questions

1. Personal Identity2. The Meaning of life

3. Discuss and apply the theory of personal identity

1. Physical Continuity theory2. Psychological Continuity theory3. The Same-Soul theory

4. Evaluation

PERSONAL IDENTITY X

WEB OF BELIEFWeb of belief

I Am ‘I’ (ME)<-core of the web of belief

Lost of personal identity-> 我是誰 ?->the breakage of the core of the web of belief?

SOMETHING WE MUST KNOW

Physical/bodily Non-physical

It would be useful to study personal identity if adapt the following approaches:

Reductionism Non-

Reductionism

SOMETHING WE MUST KNOWReductionism 1. The facts of personal identity simply consist in the holding of certain more particular facts about brains, bodies, and series of interrelated physical and mental events.2. These facts can be described in an impersonal way ( 客觀討論 .).

SOMETHING WE MUST KNOWReductionism

1. Physical Reductionism

a) The Body Majority View b) The Brain View/Physical Criterion

SOMETHING WE MUST KNOW

Reductionism

2. Psychological Reductionism - The Psychological Criterion Psychologies= memory, beliefs/desires/goals, intentions fulfilled in action, and general character resemblance.

The Narrow Version: continuity involves the normal cause. a. involves continuity of brain;

b. cannot involve radical/unwanted changes caused by external forces.

The Wide Version: continuity involves any cause.

Psychological Connectedness = the degree of holding of direct

psychological connections.

Psychological Continuity = the

degree of overlapping

chains of strong psychological

connectedness.

Relation R

SOMETHING WE MUST KNOWNon/Anti-Reductionism

1. Separately Existing Entities 非物論 :

• Cartesian Ego(Descartes' Dualism ): persons are essentially purely mental substances 唯心反物 (independent of physical substances).

2. The Further Fact :

• does not involve persons as separately existing entities.

 

BODY THEORYMaterial constitution

Ship of theseus

A=b;b=c;a=c?

3 MAIN THEORIES OF PERSONAL IDENTITY

1. PHYSICAL CONTINUITY THEORY

身體 / 物質連貫性

PHYSICAL CONTINUITY THEORYDefinition: You are the same person you were at birth if your body has existed continuously from then until now.今天 X 與過去某時刻的 Y 是同一個人，若且唯若（ if and only if ） Y 的身體持續存在，且現在是 X 的身體Parfit: 認同式的化約主義（ Identifying Reductionism)

Physical attributes: DNA is the only contender ( 身體器官、血液、甚至死皮；因內有 DNA)

Criticism:Identical twins have the same DNA, but have different identities.( 孖生不等於一樣 )

• “I will continue to have this DNA until my death.”

孫儷 飾演夏冰 ( 降魔者 )

甄子丹 飾演龐勇 ( 前將軍 )

周迅 飾演小唯 ( 狐妖 )

陳坤飾演王生 ( 將軍 )

趙薇飾演佩蓉 ( 將軍夫人 )

將軍知道狐妖的身份後，眼見夫人死去，於是報復。同時，前將軍同樣拿降魔者的劍卻不能把狐妖殺掉。

只有夏冰，真正擁有降魔血 (identity) 的人，才能証明是降魔者，把血塗上降魔劍，終可殺掉狐妖。(physical continuity)

PHYSICAL CONTINUITY THEORY

• 時空上分隔，人每分每秒都會改變，以前的你不代表今天的你

• Specify the extent to which someone can change and still be the same person ( 不同日子的你都不同，形容人 physical 的變化 )

• Physically continuous spatiotemporal ( 時空上的消失 )path

• Criticism: we can conceive of the same person having a broken path.

• 我們可以想像阿 B 由地球去火星， B 的 Physically( 身體 ) 在世界消失，但 identity 還存在於世界上。當 B 返回地球後， physically 便回復。

PHYSICAL CONTINUITY THEORY

Being John Malkovich•People entering Malkovich’ consciousness, physically and spatiotemporally disappearing, and then being dumped on the New Jerset Turnpike.•男主角進入 Malkovich 意識時，自己的 body physical continuity 在時空上暫時消失、不存在。

PHYSICAL CONTINUITY THEORY

BRAIN THEORYPCT 的修改版本 by Prafit（ 1 ）必要的不是身體的持續存在，而是足以使大腦為一個活著的人的大腦的持續存在。今天 X 與過去某時刻的 Y 是同一個人，若且唯若（ 2 ） Y 的大腦持續存在，且現在是 X 的大腦，而且（ 3 ）不存在著另一個人也有著 Y 的大腦。（ 4 ）時間中的人格同一性成立於（ 2 ）與（ 3 ）的事實之中。

Brain IdentityPsychologies ( 心

態 )

BRAIN THEORYX is the same person as Y if and only if X and Y are psychologically continuous and their psychologies are caused by and realized by the same brain.

決定 Identity 的標準 = 大腦持續存在To ensure the identity of oneself, the only way is having a brain.

•身體有 identity 的部分只有腦

Brain IdentityPsychologies ( 心

態 )

QUESTION TIME

一個人的腦被換掉，還會是自己嗎 ?

The Brain is not belon

g own

No identity mor

e

不會再是自己 = 弱的類比論證 ?往後討論

2. PSYCHOLOGICAL CONTINUITY THEORY

ELEMENT OF PSYCHOLOGICAL CONTINUITY THEORY

Psychological Continuity Theory

Continuous stream of consciousness( 持續意識

流 )Disposition * Memory 記憶

CONCEPT ROUND-UP• Cluster of psychological properties, same person from the last

year.( 心理特性長期不變 )

• Stream of conscious( 意識流 )

• High level of psychological propertiese.g(personality 人格 , value system 價值系統 , long term desire慾望 )

• Sleep? The Stream of conscious is disconnected( 意識流中斷 )

• Memory: remember the perception last yearUsed as transitive 過渡 link and identifies me as identical to that person who was born many years ago ( 跟他人身份分辨的最終標準 )

Three theory need not be taken in isolation.

A hybrid theory( 三個理論可同時使用 )

Compare with physical continuity theory: persist after death. ( 死亡後的商議 )

PSYCHOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS

Attributes cannot be seen directly, must be interfered by looking at someone's behavior( 一個人的特點態度 , 必要由行為觀察 )

First visit to the portal, lacked control

Clearly aware of distinction between himself and Malkovich

“wearing a really expensive suit”

Evidence: Phone call from Dr. Lester, force him to leave or Maxim will be killed?

Malkovich: What on earth do you mean? I am John Malkovich

Long-Standing psychological characteristics: Personality, disposition 性情 , worldview 世界觀Identify individuals over time

Craig continues to exist, even after he enters the passageway.

The original Malkovich ceases to exist is suppressed when Craig gets control over the body(Malkovich 原本心理特徵受抑壓 )

STREAM OF CONSCIOUS

Ties personal identity to the overlapping thoughts that come and go through consciousness.( 不同的意識組成意識流 )

Many overlapping thoughts and sensations that come on.( 意識不斷出現 )

No single sensation last for very long, but the stream is continuous. (沒有意識是長期性的 )

Break of continuity of stream-> Sleep?

MEMORY

Ultimate indicator of identity

AB, A=B

AB+C, A=B=C

Craig remains Craig when he enters the portal, because he has memories of being Craig, not memories of being Malkovich

CRAIG'S MEMORY

Broke into two isolation sets.

1. Memories had over the past several months as John Malkovich

2. All memories of events before that as Craig. There are no memory links between Craig in the portal and John Malkovich before Craig entered the portal.

Craig continues to exist after entering the portal, but never succeeds in being John Malkovich

1. A previous perception must have occurred( 所感知的為真實出現過 )

2. previous perception must be casually responsible for the current memory( 事實感知跟現在的記憶互相對應 )

3. The current memory must accurately represent the previous perception.( 可以準確代表出現過的事實感知

E.g. Napoleon at the War of Waterloo( 滑鐵爐戰役 )matter of fact

THE SAME SOUL THEORY - ORIGIN

笛卡兒（ René Descartes ）1. 《第一哲學沈思錄》（ Meditations on first

philosophy ） : 人們進行懷疑等思考活動時，會自然而然把自我（心靈） 與物質 ( 身體 ) 區別開來證明自我的存在。

2. 「我思故我在」（ Cogito, ergo sum ） := 形上學的基礎心物二元論（ mind-body dualism ）之爭。

3. 〈第二沈思〉 : 笛卡兒：「我思維多少時間，我就存在多少時間。我若停止思維，我便停止存在。」

THE SAME SOUL THEORY - ORIGIN

笛卡兒（ René Descartes ）1. 〈第六沈思〉：「這個我—即『靈魂』，藉著它我才能成為

我，完全不同於肉體，並且即使肉體不存在了，它也不會因此消失。」

2. 笛卡兒 : 自我 = 實體（ substance ），一個思想實體、精神實體，不依賴肉體而存在。

THE TIME-DEPENDENCE CLAIM

時間依賴主張

THE TIME-DEPENDENCE CLAIM「依賴時間的主張」（ The Time-Dependence Claim ）：• Identity Problem 同一性不確定性• 非同一性問題 Non-Identity Problem

如果任何一個特定的人當他事實上成胎的時候還沒有成胎的話，以下的事實是真的：他本來永遠不會存在。( 空洞性問題 begging the question)

THE TIME-DEPENDENCE CLAIM1. 若現在本要生下的孩子沒有生下的話，這孩子將永

遠不會存在。再等待數年生下的孩子與現在生下的孩子是否為同一個人，仍是一個空洞的問題。

2. 起初我們想要保護的是這個孩子應有的權利，然而當我們反對女孩生下這個孩子時，這個孩子連出生的機會也沒有，連存在也不會存在。即使在數年後生下了的孩子，也不會再是這個孩子。

3. 這即是帕費特所謂的「非同一性問題」：在不同的決定下，會有不同的人存在，影響到的是不相同的人。