Identity (Identity)

by David Turell , Saturday, August 15, 2009, 23:56 (5577 days ago) @ George Jelliss

"free will". This term tends to be used carelessly. I take the view that by thinking about a subject and coming to conclusions we can as a result influence our subsequent behaviour. Is this "free will"? In other respects our scope for wilful action seems to me to be somewhat limited by our circumstances. - You are right. Our 'free will' is limited by our societal relationships, but we are free to make correct choices in our dealings with others. - > "and he believes that he is in control of who he is." There I'm not so sure. I don't think I'm the same person I was ten or twenty or forty years ago, or even possibly a minute ago, since new thoughts have occurred to me. What "I" am evolves. - > "I'm sure we all believe we have our own identity, so just what is it that makes us "us"?" I would just put it down to continuity. There is a series of connections between the person I am now and who I was forty years ago. - I don't understand why you state "I'm not so sure" and then describe the continuity. I agree that our personality is put together like a layer cake, but there are continuing guidelines and it is a contiguous whole, hopefully with a deepening layer of 'maturity' and understanding what life is about. - 
 
> "Materialists would presumably say that the basis of identity is the physical stuff that goes to make up our bodies." I'm afraid that idea is unsustainable, since the material of which we are composed, i.e. the atoms, is changing all the time. I did read once how long it took for all the atoms in our bodies to recycle, and it wasn't very long, but I forget the details. 
 
But our recycling in under the control of the DNA code. Each cell has it. We just don't change that much. Recycling rates are different for different tissues. Bones and teeth hardly at all. Nails, hair and skin rapidly. In younger folks the plasticity of the brain is enormous. It grows from 1/4th of body size and is 1/8th of adult size. Molding of the connections continues until about age 24,and then memories are laid down until death, as are ideas and conclusions. The means for memory is still barely understood. - 
> "If not, what gives us control over our thoughts when we do control them, and what produces the thoughts we don't control?" There are parts of our brain where we have some control over our thoughts (probably the frontal lobes) and there are other parts that work subconsciously, as in dreams. - I agree. 
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> "Young children ... do react in their own individual way." Only after a period of development I would think. - Not exactly a long period of development. My two daughters were entirely different people by age two, and all of that is still seen today, like a 90 degree fork in the road.