Personal identity and the Phineas Gage effect

• Autores: Kevin P. Tobia
• Localización: Analysis, ISSN-e 1467-8284, Vol. 75, Nº. 3, 2015, págs. 396-405
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • Phineas Gage’s story is typically offered as a paradigm example supporting the view that part of what matters for personal identity is a certain magnitude of similarity between earlier and later individuals. Yet, reconsidering a slight variant of Phineas Gage’s story indicates that it is not just magnitude of similarity, but also the direction of change that affects personal identity judgments; in some cases, changes for the worse are more seen as identity-severing than changes for the better of comparable magnitude. Ironically, thinking carefully about Phineas Gage’s story tells against the thesis it is typically taken to support