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Ep. 261: Derek Parfit on Personal Identity (Part One)

The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast

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The Importance of Continuity in Memory

I thought it was, he was attributing to Locke. So I don't know that he's really expressing an improvement over Locke, maybe just clarifying something. Let me ask a clarifying question. Is the continuity between the memory and the experience? And then continuity is this more abstract idea where we just get overlapping chains of strong connectedness. No, Locke actually acknowledged that people forget things. But taken as a view about what is involved in a person's continued existence, Locke's claim is clearly false. If it was true, it would not be possible for someone to forget any of the things he once did or any of the experiences he once had. That seems like a bad representation

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