Metaphysics: Personal Identity

The sixth session of the Analytic Salon is coming up!

You step into a teleportation machine. It scans you, destroys the original, and recreates you on Mars — same body, same memories, same personality, same private sense that you are the one who stepped into the machine. Did you just travel, or did you die?

Now suppose the machine malfunctions. The copy wakes up on Mars, but the original is still alive on Earth. There are now two people who remember being you, love your friends, know your secrets, and insist, with equal conviction, that they are you.

Which one gets your apartment?

This week at the Analytic Salon: diachronic personal identity — or, less politely, the question of what has to continue for you to continue. Your body? Your brain? Your memories? Your soul? Your narrative arc? Your vibes?

A few things we’ll likely poke at:
- Locke’s famous idea that personal identity follows consciousness and memory rather than the body
- Mind-fission cases, body-swaps, and future torture — a small family of nightmare cases designed to make the word “me” feel a little less obvious than we usually take for granted.
- The decision to become a vampire, and whether some choices do not just change what happens to you but the very person who will inherit the consequences.

As always: No prior philosophy knowledge required. We will define all terms. Just come, uhm, as yourself, and we hope this conversation will change you.

After five sessions that exceeded our expectations, we are exploring a core philosophy area: metaphysics. As usual, we will have philosophers on site guiding us through the questions and through some influential theories.

We were struck last time by the intelligence and thoughtfulness of the attendees. We fully expect another smart, vivid discussion.

Daily life offers few chances for discussion on deep topics we actually all have thoughts about. This is a space dedicated to that. Come meet new people, make friends, and share your smartest thoughts in a low-stakes environment. This is not a class!

If you're curious, check out this video by Big Think:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOAqqjbDKFs

We will have refreshments (wine, cheese and crackers, fruit).

As always, this event is 100% free. BUT --- our Center needs and appreciates donations. Any and all amounts help. If you're so inclined, support us here:

https://www.givegab.com/campaigns/saul-kripke-center

NOTE ON RSVP-ing: RSVP is *required*.

Our events fill up within hours and there is a significant waitlist. We can only accommodate about 30 people. If you are not reasonably confident you will attend, kindly put yourself on the waitlist/maybe-list and let someone else have the spot.

RSVP via:

Partiful: https://partiful.com/e/mN9YSvcukFnynMezKTLX?c=Ebrh4ZjM
Google forms: https://forms.gle/UkY9NPJc6ovSbNNdA

OR here via meetup if there are spots (cap of 10 here).
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FOR THOSE WHO DON'T KNOW US YET:

The Analytic Salon is a series of philosophy gatherings where we crack the code of analytic philosophy. What is it? What is it for? And what is it all about? This is your chance to come meet real philosophers. We don't require ANY knowledge of analytic philosophy: this is meant to be a fun mini-lecture event followed by vivid (and respectful) discussion for non-specialists with sharp and curious minds. Let's chat. We believe quite strongly in logic, truth, rationality as a key to conversation and to intellectual exploration.

Come hang with us! We believe in spreading the word of analytic philosophy beyond the ivory tower.

For more info, check out our website:

https://analytic-salon-nyc.github.io/

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The Analytic Salon is made possible by the Saul Kripke Center. Check out the work we do here: kripkecenter.commons.gc.cuny.edu