Are you the same person you were as a child?
What I mean is: if you look at a photograph of yourself when you were 5-years-old and a photograph of yourself now today, would you say they are photos of the same person or are they photos of two different people?
The answer seems like it might be quite obvious but on the other hand not.
Technorati tags: philosophy, logic, existentialism, question
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14 comments:
I've thought about this myself. Only in my case, I wondered what my 10 year old self would think about me today. Clearly, though, I am the same person I was then.
http://thaed.wordpress.com/2006/05/29/would-your-10-year-old-self-find-you-to-be-cool-today/
I think of this quite often...I seek part of that childhood, I can look at a pphoto and be so far removed, I cant even conjure up any emotion about it...surreal in a way, then in my minds eye I have such memories filled with movement, etc...
And yet I through all of this I still feel her inside...make sense?
Peace
Jodi
I would say no. All the cells I had then have long since died, and have been replaced how many times?
I can very well remember the time when I was 10-years old, my experiences then (my parents just went through their divorce then) and my emotions, too. But since then I had so many other experiences and new emotions. I still have a little bit of that 10-year old in me, and I can understand her, but I have clearly evolved and changed.
T-
But if your 10 year old self must think and judge your today self, then that would imply that there are two separate selves there. Is that right?
At one physical level you are not. You are not the same cells as you were then. At the level of being a self-aware collection of memes you certainly are not. Is there any strand of you that is unchanged/unevoling over that period?
J-
That's great. Yes, it makes sense. And it sounds wonderful, actually.
M-
That's a very good point!
Z-
So when something changes, is it something different? Or is it different yet not separate from what it was?
D-
That's a good question. And someone out there must have the answer.
I remember I time when I would have said they were of two separate people but as a schizophrenic combines personalities in therapy, I'd now say they are of the same person at different stages in life.
Dwayne-
Interesting! Looking at it that way, we'd be constantly "living in therapy" throughout our life, combining (naturally or with effort) the different stages (i.e., the different persons) of our lifetime.
And then that would mean we'd have to wait for death (the end of our life) to be a whole or complete person, because it's only then that we'd have all the "stages" or "persons" that we'd ever be all together in one place and time.
That is a very interesting thought. To be honest there are times when I look at my childhood pictures and I almost want to cry. There are times when I don't recognize myself. Not because of appearance necessarily, but because of the expression I wore in those pictures. When I smiled into the camera, I really smiled, I wasn't aware of the troubles the world would face, or the painful trials I would have to endure myself. So, no, I am definitely not the same person I was back then. I don't smile into the camera any more.
Flic,
Do you use any instant messengers.
I would like to talk about these things but Im spoiled by instant gratification so I dont want to do it in blogger comments.
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C-
Unfortunately, I don't use instant messenger.
But I'm very much interested in continuing a conversation or having conversation via email.
(I know it's not instant, but it's more instant than blogger comments.)
So yes, please fell free to email me about any topics or anything else and let's start a dialogue!
And I mean this for anyone else out there who feels the same way Canopenner does or who would simply like to communicate via email.
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BL-
Sometimes our own childhood could seem so far away. But that child is still there sometimes, and helps you to be able to still smile -- even if it's only occasionally.
Never smile into the camera? Don't you smile into the camera at least once in a blue moon? If not, you're a very interesting woman!
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