Colin McGinn - What is the Nature of Personal Identity?

Look at an old photo. Then look in the mirror. Those two images are of the same person, right? How so? They don't look the same. Their memories are different. And virtually every atom in their bodies is different. We feel unity across time, but is this solidified sense of self an illusion?

[amirhesamnoroozi]

One of the most illustrative videos of this channel

[papa]

Brilliant! Spot On! "... our imagination is liberated by our ignorance ..." Indeed. And if we have NOTHING ELSE we have our imagination. Which, of course, is completely explained as an emergent property of our mentation ... which in turn is a process that we know gives rise to many, many things not the least of which our ability to be motile organisms, and in our specific case (humans) gives rise to just the kinds of discussions presented in the conversation presented in the video. I think a good way to think about this is to consider just how mentation evolved and what properties it must have from a computational standpoint to do the job it must. Our 'big-brains' not only get us around this world but also allow us to host this fantastical extra bit that we call imagination. When we toss in the correct checks and balances on our imaginations we find that our species is capable of developing the civilization we now enjoy. Sadly all the 'evolutionary-baggage' we retain from our less evolved selves must be accounted for and kept in check lest we go straight off the tracks into places that only exist in our collective imaginations and have no foundation in the reality of the world around us.

[jessrevill]

There's nothing wrong with not knowing.  It's only a problem if you don't admit it.

[nosaorons]

One important question we should ask is, do things and phenomenon exist outside our memories? Our 5 sense organs simply act as sensors for external information which then store up in our minds. We then claim these memories as what makes up our sense of self. Another important question would be, would there be a sense of self without memories?

[jonstewart]

I love Colin! He just says it how it is, on the basis of what we can be pretty sure of, and goes no further. The magic is that he sees with great clarity just how bizarre and mysterious the things we take for granted, such as consciousness and the self, really are, given what we know from science. But then he doesn't come out with any silly unjustified "solutions" (e.g. materialism/theology) to get us out of the pickle. He's just straightforward and honest about how bizarre and difficult to explain reality is. What a hero!

[williamcallahan]

and the beat goes on and on... the elephant in the room is always Emptiness

[Jaime-egeb]

I completely agree about the two extremes (great point there) but the person being interviewed seems rather hostile to the idea of a spirit. Now I would understand his point of view if our understanding of the physical world had lead us in that direction, but I don't see any evidence of that.

The more you look at matter and complex systems, the more you wonder how something as different from it as consciousness could emerge from any arrangement of its components. Now there is obviously a relation between consciousness and the brain, but we are far from understanding what it is.

We can say for sure that cognition, personality and memory, for example, are linked to the brain in some form, but that is not enough to conclude that a) their basic identity is material (rather than being affected or expressed by matter), and b) there is nothing more fundamental about our self which is not physical.

So I really don't get the arrogance that I see in some people of science (not the man in the video, I enjoyed his ideas) making unsubstantiated claims about the nature of our reality, often with very little actual data or valuable arguments to support them. I guess admitting ignorance doesn't get the bills payed... But the truth is, as far as I can tell, most people don't know much about these topics (to put it mildly). Yet almost everyone will voice a strong opinion if asked...

I'm all for expressing ideas, but if we haven't collectively solved a problem for thousands of years, one should be a little humble when addressing it...

[bebeezra]

Does the answer to origin of self concept rest in our intelligence or consciousness?

Are human beings conscious because of their intelligence or intelligent because of their consciousness?

[Lucidthinking]

Colin McGinn is getting us only up to John locke's preview of the self (as a self-memory) or to the scientific assumption that the self is a product of the brain. They are both insufficient since neither memory or the brain is constant, and identity requires consistency. 
If the question of the self really interests you I invite you to seek youtube for the video:
Who am I? the answer to the riddle of the self.

[cubefox]

If a person A and later a person B are psychological continuous over time (in the sense of Locke) then A=B, i.e. it's the same person. There you have it, personal identity. There is nothing "too weak" about the continuous mental state view. (The real problem arises when persons split or fuse over time, but they didn't talk about that.)

[otakurocklee]

This is an incorrect description of passage through time. Mental states do not exist in instants of time. Time in the first person sense cannot be split into lengthless instants, neither can mental states.

[mycount]

the physical features (bar aging) persist. We see a person an recognize them years later like the patterns of a cats coat. So, the traits of the personality and mind are connected to molecules the same way the visible self persists what is so difficult to understand.

[chelSEY]

Pity the interviewer kept interrupting.

[MrTornadillo]

He is making a very big mistake, you cant drop from ignorance about yourself to ignorance in a literal sense. All is a big confusion and don’t explain anything. I can easely destroy his arguments, that is very strange cause I, m not a profesional in this field. I think that we have a big ignorance of what a self is, then, you cant conclude anything about that.