Who is Jack? Lilli Schilg
Identity can be defined as well known aspects of self-conception, social presentation and unique abilities or characteristics of an individual. How you were raised, environment, experiences, gender, sexuality, religion and physical and mental stability or diseases all affect identity. Jack decides to have his mind partially renovated by changing memories and ideas of failure into those of success. Jack will still identify himself as Jack just with different memories of some occurrences. After undergoing the procedure, Jack is known as the person in chair A but when another person in chair B accidentally receives Jack’s complete original mind we are left with the question who is Jack? Both the person in chair A and B is Jack. This is supported through Rene Descartes’ and Plato’s response to the mind and body problem by stating that the substance dualistic properties of the mind and body are determined by when the physical properties of the brain and body cease to exist the mind continues to live. The primary ways you are identified are through internal and external or mental, physical and spiritual ways which correlate with substance dualism.
Both the person in chair A and B is Jack because of the physical and mental aspects of substance dualism allowing both persons to continue living but in separate bodies. Substance Dualism is a subcategory of dualism in the philosophy of mind which states that two kinds of substances exist; physical and mental. It specifies that the physical and mental are separate substances with independent existence. While the physical substance is extended within space but does not have the capacity to process any thought, the mental substance’s thought is its very essence and cannot have any capacity to function in the physical world. Favoured by various religions, substance dualism can be recognised as the distinct mind being synonymous with the soul. Plato similarly stated that the soul inhabits the body temporarily and when the body ceases to live and the mind exists in the infinite metaphysical realm of the forms. Both the person in chair A and B demonstrate the same traits as substance dualism. Jack’s original mind now belonging to the person in chair B has portrayed the characteristic as if Jack’s original body has ceased to live and now his mental instead of returning to the mental world has inhabited another body. It uses both Jack’s original mind but another body therefore still continuing to exist being two independent substances. The person in chair A has the original Jack’s physical aspect but also the ‘new and improved’ mind which technically is still Jack just slightly different, his continuum of identity has deciphered into the identity that he originally wanted and sought to have. Assuming both people believe and now identify themselves as Jack they internally have parallel minds but partially different memories however both will think they are Jack. The physical aspects however being different can affect whether externally Jack is recognised as Jack by family and friends.
The person in chair A and B can both prove to everyone that they are Jack through their parallel existence and corroboration of both mental and physical substances. Person A however partially lacking the original mental state of Jack is externally recognised as Jack by friends, family, DNA passports and photos whereas the person in chair B now having the complete original mind could convince family and friends that they are in fact Jack. The person in chair A would be considered delusional about their memories of things didn’t occur which could be referred back to an amnesia or schizophrenia patient. Even though their memories are different, physically and externally they are known as the person before the disease or accident but in this case before Jack took the mind renovation. But through the internal original memories that the person in chair B now has, they could
