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SOUL SEARCH 1 SOUL SEARCH: THE EXTRA-PERSONAL SOURCE OF SELF-IDENTITY Joel D. Benedict University of Advancing Technology SOUL SEARCH 2 Soul Search: the Extra-Personal Source of Self-Identity Introduction The purpose of this paper is to discuss the relations of memory and personal identity. The scope is the ethics of identity and the role memory plays in identity. The method is to show the components of personal identity. The results determine the influences upon personal identity and the effects of these constituent internal components on the exterior field of ethics. The conclusion summarizes the ethics stemming from a view of internal personal identity. Recommendations given to individuals for ethical decisions regarding memory are based on the source of personal identity. Body Physiological Determination of Personal Identity The purpose of discussing relations of memory and personal identity is to give individuals information about their own identity. Thus, memory and personal identity must be fully understood before making an ethical decision. Personal identity is physiological, psychological, extra-personal (i.e. the self is a soul), or is a combination of the three. In the first theory of personal identity, the self is purely physical and only exists as long as the brain continues its status quo. If a part of the physical brain is altered via a brain injury, surgery, or dementia, then the person has died, and a new identity is present in its place. What the physical theory fails to factor is the minute changes in the brain throughout life—if it is the case that significant alteration kills an identity, then a person would be in a constant state of changing identities, constantly dying upon encountering experiences that change thought patterns. Psychological Determination of Personal Identity SOUL SEARCH The weaknesses of the physical theory do not to disprove that physical changes in the brain are not a part of identity. This is because the physical brain affects the abstract psychology of the mind. Disorders of the mind, personality, and behavior are all caused by the physical and psychological state of the brain. Psychology deals more with the controllable aspects of the mind, the choices that individuals make and why they make certain decisions. Thus, a psychological decision can change the physical makeup of the brain. Theorizing that personal identity originates from the mind fails to account for the physical changes in the brain. However, just as with physiological traits, psychology is not disproven as a part of identity because of its reciprocal effect on the physical brain. Combined Body and Mind Identity Determination The psychological and physical theories fail to address changes in behavior, personality, and memory. If a person consciously changes a habit, the change cannot be attributed to the involuntary regulatory movements of the body or solely to the personality and general behavior traits of the person. The next theory combines psychology and physiology to declare the person’s identity is composed of both mind and body components. This means that a person dies when their body and mind have been so altered that they no longer exist, and a new body and mind have created a new personal identity. Humans that develop from a fetus are substantially different from their previous state in both psychology and physiology. We can judge from this that the fetus and the adult are non-identical personal identities. Componential State Identity Determination Every single human of the course of a lifetime will have multiple personal identities, as each literally dies in some fashion and is replaced by a distinct personal identity in discontinuous linearity. The life dies in parts, as each person retains a part of their psychology or physiology 3 SOUL SEARCH regardless of damage or major changes to mind and body. This continuous cell-like cycle of life and death means that the current state of a person determines their current personal identity. The person’s present personal identity can be retained from a previous state, or may be completely different from the previous state. Memory Identity Determination The question of the makeup of a person’s identity cannot be branched by the dually psychological and physiological component of memory. Memory can be altered, manufactured as a false or quasi-memory and can die as can any other component of the self. As such, memory can no more be the source of personal identity than personality or behavior alone can be the sole determinants of personal identity. Extra-personal Identity Determination Continuous-component-state identity The parts of personal identity are body, mind, memory, personality, and behavior; together the parts define a personal identity, but only a temporary identity that will die in pieces and be replaced many times over by new individual components. Therefore, the question of a continuous personal identity that does not discard pieces leads to the conclusion of an extrapersonal, existential personal identity—the soul. Discernment between souls and identity components The soul does not die in part or in whole at least throughout the duration of life, but like the physical body remains constant throughout its term of existence. Unlike the individual components, the soul is not damaged by changes to the body, mind, or memory. The soul is a continuous container of each individual personal element in every state it appears. The identities that exist before and after a brain injury are both parts of the continuous self. Therefore, even in a 4 SOUL SEARCH 5 situation where an individual component like memory is identically present in two completely different humans, the personal identities of the two are still non-identical. In the case where an individual copies every component of personal identity to another, the individuals still have separate souls because of previously non-identical states. Conclusions and Recommendations Recommendations Because memories are just one part of personal identity, ethics should be drawn from the personal identity of the componential and continuous self rather than from an individual component like memory. The ethics of this soul theory mean that no amount of transfer of quasimemories or additional components like personality or physiology can create two identical people. Since the only memories that are not quasi-memories are those held by those that experience them, memories can only be copied, but not relived. Conflicts of interest between two individuals claiming the same personal identity by virtue of exact memory replication can resolve the conflict by granting identical status to matching components. However, the overall personal identities should be granted as non-identical as the original executor of actions established the current state of the component. Summary The purpose of this paper is to argue that memory is simply one part of personal identity. The scope is the ethics of an identity made of more than just memory. The method breaks down the components of personal identity to show that changes to parts other than memory result in a change of identity. The conclusion summarizes how ethics decisions based on memory differ from ethics decisions based on soul. The recommendation is that people should make decisions based on the personal identity of their body, mind, and soul.