Derek Parfit saw his reductionist view of personal identity as ultimately liberating, in an almost Buddhist sense:
> "Is the truth depressing? Some may find it so. But I find it liberating, and consoling. When I believed that my existence was a further fact, I seemed imprisoned in myself. My life seemed like a glass tunnel, through which I was moving faster every year, and at the end of which there was darkness. When I changed my view, the walls of my glass tunnel disappeared. I now live in the open air. There is still a difference between my life and the lives of other people. But the difference is less. I am less concerned about the rest of my own life, and more concerned about the lives of others."
But I wonder if such view can have more sinister interpretations. For example, a "parfitian" might become obsessed in imposing his own worldview and tastes on other people, feeling that this affords him a measure of "immortality". A bit like the ancient greek heroes' thirst for fame, perhaps. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kleos#cite_ref-4
> "When doubts invade us and cloud our faith in the immortality of the soul, a vigorous and painful impulse is given to the anxiety to perpetuate our name and fame, to grasp at least a shadow of immortality. And hence this tremendous struggle to singularize ourselves, to survive in some way in the memory of others and of posterity … Each one seeks to affirm himself, if only in appearance … Man habitually sacrifices his life to his purse, but he sacrifices his purse to his vanity. He boasts even of his weaknesses and his misfortunes, for want of anything better to boast of, and is like a child who, in order to attract attention, struts about with a bandaged finger." —Miguel de Unamuno, The Tragic Sense of Life
It's interesting seeing this on HN, but I should warn people that (most) of these philosophy snippets are pretty tough to understand without proper context. For what it's worth, I've never been a fan of philosophy of mind, mainly because there's a lot of speculation and hand-waving.
With that said, I most align with Strawson's view of personhood as a "logical primitive," as he described it in his seminal Persons (1959)[1] where it seems that a person is an inseparable "bundle" of things, including memories, dreams, aspirations, autonomy, physical features, and so on. In that sense, there is definitely some continuity between a 12-week old fetus and a grown adult.
> "Is the truth depressing? Some may find it so. But I find it liberating, and consoling. When I believed that my existence was a further fact, I seemed imprisoned in myself. My life seemed like a glass tunnel, through which I was moving faster every year, and at the end of which there was darkness. When I changed my view, the walls of my glass tunnel disappeared. I now live in the open air. There is still a difference between my life and the lives of other people. But the difference is less. I am less concerned about the rest of my own life, and more concerned about the lives of others."
But I wonder if such view can have more sinister interpretations. For example, a "parfitian" might become obsessed in imposing his own worldview and tastes on other people, feeling that this affords him a measure of "immortality". A bit like the ancient greek heroes' thirst for fame, perhaps. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kleos#cite_ref-4
> "When doubts invade us and cloud our faith in the immortality of the soul, a vigorous and painful impulse is given to the anxiety to perpetuate our name and fame, to grasp at least a shadow of immortality. And hence this tremendous struggle to singularize ourselves, to survive in some way in the memory of others and of posterity … Each one seeks to affirm himself, if only in appearance … Man habitually sacrifices his life to his purse, but he sacrifices his purse to his vanity. He boasts even of his weaknesses and his misfortunes, for want of anything better to boast of, and is like a child who, in order to attract attention, struts about with a bandaged finger." —Miguel de Unamuno, The Tragic Sense of Life