[Cornwall Theatre] Most of us will agree that a person now ages 20 is identical with he/she as he/she was 10 years old. Although most of the cells in his/her body have been replaced (and the appearance may change a lot), we still regard him/her as the same person. So what makes him/her the same person? Some believe that ones consciousness or memory is a solid foundation that constitutes his/her identity. The memory erasing technology in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind seems to be fictional. In real life, however, people do lose their memory for several reasons. If we believe that memory is crucial for ones personal identity, can we say that Joel (Jim Carrey) becomes a different person after he has erased part of the memory? And how about people who suffer from amnesia or Alzheimers disease?
Posted on: Sat, 01 Nov 2014 02:00:01 +0000