I am interested in hearing arguments and explanations, but also in anecdotes recounting episodes of philosophical worry and resolution—thoughts you had and how you reacted to them.
Well, I certainly possess the intuitive model of personal identity that you refer to here, which includes the idea that I am a unique entity which we can call a “person”, distinct from all other entities at any given moment, and that I have an existence that extends throughout a region of time in a very specific way.
And I agree that this intuitive model is in tension with the timeless model you refer to here, which includes the idea that I am a set of unique entities which we can call “person-moments”, which are not only distinct from all other entities at any given moment but also distinct from all other entities at all other moments.
That said, by the time I was introduced to the timeless model, I had long since reconciled myself to the fact that what I mean by “I” is an extremely variable and often inconsistent thing.
This caused me some philosophical worry in my late teens, but eventually I got clear in my head that “I” is a symbol I manipulate, and that most of my intuitions about identity are based on manipulations of that symbol, and if there is any underlying unique distinct referent for that symbol (whether a person that changes, or a set of person-moments that are connected in some way, or an immortal soul that exists outside of time and space, or something else) it’s nevertheless a mistake to attribute to that referent properties that are properly ascribed to the symbol.
So, no, it doesn’t much bother me that there are two models which imply different (even mutually exclusive) things about what “I” refers to. “I” refers to many different (even mutually exclusive) things. I’m cool with that.
Well, I certainly possess the intuitive model of personal identity that you refer to here, which includes the idea that I am a unique entity which we can call a “person”, distinct from all other entities at any given moment, and that I have an existence that extends throughout a region of time in a very specific way.
And I agree that this intuitive model is in tension with the timeless model you refer to here, which includes the idea that I am a set of unique entities which we can call “person-moments”, which are not only distinct from all other entities at any given moment but also distinct from all other entities at all other moments.
That said, by the time I was introduced to the timeless model, I had long since reconciled myself to the fact that what I mean by “I” is an extremely variable and often inconsistent thing.
This caused me some philosophical worry in my late teens, but eventually I got clear in my head that “I” is a symbol I manipulate, and that most of my intuitions about identity are based on manipulations of that symbol, and if there is any underlying unique distinct referent for that symbol (whether a person that changes, or a set of person-moments that are connected in some way, or an immortal soul that exists outside of time and space, or something else) it’s nevertheless a mistake to attribute to that referent properties that are properly ascribed to the symbol.
So, no, it doesn’t much bother me that there are two models which imply different (even mutually exclusive) things about what “I” refers to. “I” refers to many different (even mutually exclusive) things. I’m cool with that.