Everything about me is contingent, meaning it could have been otherwise. I could have been born into a rich family, I could be a cow, I could be a number, or anything else. My identity is contingent; there is nothing about me, as far as I know, that could not have been otherwise, and if it were otherwise, I would not be me.
Likewise, everything about me, as far as I know, is changing. My conscious state is changing, my body is changing, my personality is changing, my memories are changing, and many things about me are changing.
So, what is the absolute thing that defines me as me. Such that if it changes, I would logically no longer be me? What is it that defines me, and what is that absolute and necessary thing which defines me as me?
I would say experiences. You’ve had billions of them throughout your life, some more impactful than others, and no other person shares them with you, it’s really what makes you what you are. Those experiences and what you learned and your reaction to them represent the past, and that’s the one thing that doesn’t change, only the interpretation of it.
Otherwise, then yes. Everything is changing, nothing in the Universe is static, apart from the past, let alone living beings that are only here for a short while. So the only thing that can change that would make you no longer you, would be the past, and that’s just not possible.
But experiences changes and I do forget experiences. Even during a dreamless sleep I don’t have any experiences.
And logically it is possible I might have no experience, I can be a child or a human who was in an unconscious coma for its entire life and had no experience to begin with. Or a non living thing which has no experience at all.
So, experience doesn’t seem that thing or property which defines me and if that property is changed or removed I won’t be me logically.
Also my past is constantly changing and also it is logically possible I might have different past. So, nah past doesn’t seem that thing which define me as me.
I think it might be helpful to define experience. It’s what you see, what you hear, what you smell, what you taste, what you touch, what you feel (emotions), and even the thoughts you had and the conclusions you reached.
You say that during a dreamless sleep you don’t have any experiences, but you will feel cold if the room gets colder, it might not wake you up, and you might not be aware of it, but the experience was recorded by your subconscious regardless.
The person in the coma, is there brain activity? Then they are experiencing something. A non-living thing of course doesn’t really come into this equation, I assumed you were talking solely from the perspective of a human being.
Your past experiences can’t be changed, they are set in stone, like I said, only your interpretation of them can change. Also, the past isn’t constantly changing, it is only constantly being added to. That birthday party at 10 years old, that will never change and neither will the experience, the way you remember it might though. New experiences might change your perception, and your interpretation of the past, but it doesn’t change the experiences themselves, they are essentially unchanging.
Maybe it was recorded in an information sense. But the raw subjective qualitative sensations, I don’t get it during a dreamless sleep. Clearly there is no experience during dreamless sleep.
This addition of new past experiences itself a some form of change. This shows past is individual events are set in stone but past as a whole is constantly changing by adding new events constantly in it.
And also I am talking from logical possibility perspective. Physical I can’t change or can’t have a different past. But logically it is possible that I might have a different past or origin and it will still be me. So, my past is contingent it could be otherwise. It is not something which has to be like this logically. Because of this I don’t consider my past a thing which fully defines me as me.
Well doesn’t that define us then? If not taking new events (experiences) into account, then what happened, and how we interpreted it both biologically and mentally at that particular moment in time, are unchanging ingredients that help to define us, regardless of what is added at a later date. And past might be changing if viewed as a whole, but the constituent parts of that whole are unchanging.
Yes, and I say that your identity is down to the things you have experienced.
Then you wouldn’t be you, it would be a different person altogether.
The contradiction is that you are talking about a completely different person, I don’t understand the comparison, what is the defining factor that makes the male and the female the same person?
That’s I was asking what is that absolute thing which makes both person me. But maybe my belief that everything about me is contingent as far as I know is wrong. And if that’s the case then what is the thing which makes me me, when almost everything I know about myself is constantly changing?
Past experiences. They are not changing, that’s my whole point. And my set of past experiences are wildly different from yours. It really is what makes us unique, it’s the resulting blend of countless variables that makes us what we are. The future can change everything, who we are as a person, but the future can’t change the past, and how that affected us as a person.
People think of time as some sort of road, but that’s not a very good metaphor, you can drive back along a road, you certainly can’t do that with time, time is one way, and the accumulation of reality that it leaves in its wake is unalterable. Reality in this instance is experience.
For me, I am the result of the complete set of my previous experience. Things may happen that will change me, or make me think or experience life differently, but previous experience doesn’t change.
The constant influx may change your perception of past experiences, but it doesn’t change the experiences themselves. It’s just adding new ingredients to the recipe. The giant storm on Jupiter may shift or even disappear, but that can never change the fact that it was once there. Will Jupiter be different? Yes, it will, but the spot itself is now engraved into the past, and has become a part of an unchanging reality because of it, regardless of what Jupiter looks like today. Did the spot affect Jupiter, and does it alter the future outcome of storms on the planet? I’m sure it does, to a greater or lesser degree.
I guess you will understand my objection more correctly if I use set theoretic language. You are saying “past experiences defines” me and other people. But “past experiences” as whole is constantly changing because new past events constantly adding in this collection which we called “past experiences” the elements in it like past events don’t change but the collection “past experiences” constantly changing because new elements are constantly getting added to it. That’s why “past experiences” don’t define me because they are constantly changing.
If you say past events define me, my question is which past events define me. Because I have many past events like going to a tour, visiting relatives house and many others. But those events aren’t related to me. So, which past events define me?
Smaug the dragon keeps adding to his pile of treasure. That pile is constantly changing because it is constantly being added to. But the treasure that’s already there, is always there. What Smaug had to do to acquire that treasure and where it came from, does not change, so that treasure can be equated to past experiences in this instance.
All of them. Not just single events which you believe to be significant, every single event you were exposed to, of which there are countless. They are related to you, because they influenced you both at the time, afterwards, and in some way still do today. Everything you have experienced has helped to define you.
Biologically you are more than just past experiences, you were already unique in that aspect the day you were born, and mentally you are more too, the way that you think in particular will affect the outcome of experience, but those experiences are foundational in making you what you are as a person, because they are unique to you, your perception of them was unique, and collectively they affected you in a way that no other can be affected.
I’m not saying that past experience defines you in a fixed sense, no, you are constantly changing and experiencing new things, but the previous ingredients are there and had an effect.
Aristotle said “everything moves”. It does, everything in the entire Universe is in a constant state of flux, that is the effect. But for effect to be realised, there has to be cause, there has to be a then to make a now. Now can be wildly different from what then was, but without then, now isn’t possible. Does that make any sense?
Then I don’t think they are the unchangeable thing which defines me. Here I am asking for a property of myself which doesn’t change and that property defines me. Past experiences as a whole changes, even though they influenced me some way. They don’t define absolutely. Here I believe self should be absolute not something which changes.
In my personal involvement with overall “true self” “actuality” “Idealism”—I tend to look back on my studies of philosophy from the beginning.
“I know one thing and that’s that I knownothing”.—to—“Ideas and thoughts [Forms] are the source of all things”.—and—”The energy of the mind is the essence of all life".
Straight from the mouths of the Goats yet we lose ourselves later down the line and start to think we know us through being and experience.
“I Think, therefore I am”.—"Primarily, a thing cannot be unless it possesses an act of being”.—"The world is my idea”.—“To be is to do.” Existence requires active agency in the physical and moral world, not just passive existence.
I maybe didn’t list these in the right categorized order but you can get the jest of it through research, but to follow up to my own rationale I pick up where Santayana left off on skepticism to where he sought the consciousness to be in four realms.
Essence: These are the immediate data of consciousness—colors, sounds, emotions, and concepts. Essences are eternal and do not depend on existence, serving as the “alphabet” of experience.
Matter: The fundamental, changing, and independent substance of the universe. It is the “impatient child” that brings essences to life, existing in space and time.
Truth: The complete description of everything that happens in the realm of matter, forming a specific, historical narrative.
Spirit: The consciousness or awareness that witnesses, feels, and contemplates the other realms.
So experiences turned to a cosmic wondering throughout our philosophy and still to this day those experiences chance yet never or are hardly discussed in full briefing. One cannot simply speak for others experiences or even explain how they should perceive such experiences yet enjoy those same experiences with them from a distance ya know. We sense our own perception isn’t wrong and think to believe we’re absolute in our thought process. Only for a whole new experience to change that perception completely. What joy!
“Everything about me is contingent, meaning it could have been otherwise. I could have been born into a rich family, I could be a cow, i̶ ̶c̶o̶u̶l̶d̶ ̶b̶e̶ ̶a̶ ̶n̶u̶m̶b̶e̶r̶, or anything else.”
This is the part I would like to know more of. The science of reincarnation. Why your soul entered this planet and body and not some other planet and body.
