Free Will: continuity of self (Introduction)

by David Turell , Monday, December 07, 2020, 15:13 (1447 days ago) @ dhw

Shown in this study:

https://mindmatters.ai/2020/12/do-we-really-remain-the-same-person-throughout-our-lives/

"DO WE REALLY REMAIN THE SAME PERSON THROUGHOUT OUR LIVES? Or is the continuity of our selves just an illusion?

"That’s an interesting question because most cells in our bodies will die and be replaced a number of times. Many brain cells die but they are not replaced. They are just gone. So what, if anything, remains the same?

***

"...a University of Madrid research team decided to study the problem. The researchers found that “the essence of our being remains largely stable over the years”:

“'In our study, we tried to answer the question of whether we are the same person throughout our lives. In conjunction with the previous literature, our results indicate that there is a component that remains stable while another part is more susceptible to change over time,” explained Miguel Rubianes, a researcher at the Department of Psychobiology and Behavioural Sciences Methodology at the UCM and the Centre for Human Evolution and Behaviour (UCM-ISCIII).

"The ‘continuity of the self’—the capacity for self-awareness and self-recognition— remains stable whereas other components such as physical aspects, physiological processes and even attitudes, beliefs and values are more liable to change.

"Even components such as personality traits tend to change slightly over the years, but “the sense of being oneself is preserved, improving our understanding of human nature,” according to Rubianes.

"The study published in Psychophysiology, used electroencephalography (EEG) to follow the brain patterns of 20 volunteers when images were shown of themselves and close friends during various stages of their lives. The researchers concluded that “the neural representation of oneself (i.e., “I am myself”) seems to be stable and also updated across time.”

"Incidentally, they found that it took the 20 volunteers’ brains around 250 milliseconds to recognize our own identities as distinct from that of others.

"So even though our bodies are almost entirely changed, both in appearance and composition from what they were decades ago, we feel the same and recognize images of ourselves almost instantly. That’s a good argument for the existence of a self that goes beyond mere matter". (my bold)

Comment: The 'self' is immaterial and is with us all during life. I view it the same as the soul.