My answer: all and none. “Real” has no place in the discussion, only how close a given instance is to the reference for some purpose. For some purposes (as a moral target, whose happiness we value), they’re all Jeff. For some (Jeff’s uncle died, which will a court award the inheritance to?), none are.
I don’t see how this line of thinking is relevant to whether there’s more to identity than a theoretically-observable pattern.
So this is the philosophy of pragmatism, where you let the situation decide what metrics to use. This comment (and the post as well) are not only a critique of patternism, but also indirectly a (small) critique of realism and intellectualism. I won’t wade into the broader discussion of the philosophy of science, but needless to say I support pragmatism too.
My answer: all and none. “Real” has no place in the discussion, only how close a given instance is to the reference for some purpose. For some purposes (as a moral target, whose happiness we value), they’re all Jeff. For some (Jeff’s uncle died, which will a court award the inheritance to?), none are.
I don’t see how this line of thinking is relevant to whether there’s more to identity than a theoretically-observable pattern.
So this is the philosophy of pragmatism, where you let the situation decide what metrics to use. This comment (and the post as well) are not only a critique of patternism, but also indirectly a (small) critique of realism and intellectualism. I won’t wade into the broader discussion of the philosophy of science, but needless to say I support pragmatism too.