Week 7 — Personal Identity and Free Will
Why this matters
A criminal justice major asking when a person can be held responsible for a choice and a music fan arguing whether a band with all new members is the same band both face this week's questions.
In plain language
This week asks two questions about you: what makes you the same person you were years ago, and are your choices free (up to you in the way that praise and blame seem to need) if every choice has causes? You meet a famous puzzle about a ship, a theory that ties a person to their memories, and a Buddhist teaching that there is no permanent self (a self that stays fixed while everything else changes). Then come three answers to the free will question and a 1969 paper by Harry Frankfurt. Your goal is to state each view fairly, not to pick a winner.
- Already covered: Weeks 1–6 gave you counterexamples, standard form and validity, and three answers to what a mind is.
- This week: identity over time, the ship of Theseus, the memory theory, no-self, and three free will positions.
- How they connect: Week 6 asked what a mind is; this week asks what keeps it the same and whether it chooses freely.
- Where we're going next: Week 8 reviews Weeks 1–7 and adds Pascal's wager.
Focus
What makes you the same person over time, and can a caused choice be free?
By the end of this module, you should be able to:
- [ ] tell numerical from qualitative identity
- [ ] state both answers to the ship of Theseus at their strongest
- [ ] tell determinism from fatalism
- [ ] state hard determinism, libertarianism, and compatibilism fairly
To-do
Plan your week
- Read Chapter 7 (~45–55 minutes), then the lecture and slides.
- Work the lecture tutorial (60–90 minutes).
- Do the practice exercises (15–25 minutes).
- Do the Philosophy Workshop (about 90 minutes), discussion, and assignment.
- Take the quiz.
This week's checkpoint: explain why determinism is not fatalism, and say which premise of argument 4 a compatibilist rejects.
You've got this
Take it in order, and ask your instructor early if stuck.
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