the phrase “your past circumstances determine who you are when you face a choice, you are still the one that decides” holds true for most people, it seems like it doesn’t hold true for them.
Alex before and after developing the tumor have different past circumstances so we can regard them as different people if we see personal identity as high-level concept that can be reduced to whatever low-level explanation gives the most understanding. Here it seems to explain your intuition if you see them as different people, or at least not exactly the same person.
Society likes the original Alex and wants to bring him back. Nothing more is gained from punishing Alex if we can restore his original state, unlike a hypothetical pedophile who would molest children irrespective of having a tumor and who needs to be deterred, rehabilitated, or kept away from society. That person’s past and future selves would implement more similar algorithms than Alex’s past and future selves.
Alex before and after developing the tumor have different past circumstances so we can regard them as different people if we see personal identity as high-level concept that can be reduced to whatever low-level explanation gives the most understanding. Here it seems to explain your intuition if you see them as different people, or at least not exactly the same person.
Society likes the original Alex and wants to bring him back. Nothing more is gained from punishing Alex if we can restore his original state, unlike a hypothetical pedophile who would molest children irrespective of having a tumor and who needs to be deterred, rehabilitated, or kept away from society. That person’s past and future selves would implement more similar algorithms than Alex’s past and future selves.