The tale Parfit tells: Analytic metaphysics of personal identity vs. Wittgensteinian film and literature

Read, Rupert (2015) The tale Parfit tells: Analytic metaphysics of personal identity vs. Wittgensteinian film and literature. Philosophy and Literature, 39 (1). pp. 128-153. ISSN 1086-329X

[thumbnail of The Tale Parfit Tells]
Preview
PDF (The Tale Parfit Tells) - Published Version
Download (312kB) | Preview

Abstract

At the center of Derek Parfit’s Reasons and Persons is nestled a famous short story about a person who uses a teletransporter. Parfit argues that his “thought experiment” shows that “personal identity”—as (analytic) philosophy understands it—doesn’t matter. As long as I know that my “self” on Mars is unharmed by the teletransporter, it shouldn’t matter to me that I remain on Earth, soon to die. I use Christopher Priest’s novel The Prestige and the Nolan brothers’ film of it to challenge the method and alleged moral of this “branch-line” teletransportation thought experiment, treating it as a work of literature in miniature.

Item Type: Article
Faculty \ School: Faculty of Arts and Humanities > School of Politics, Philosophy, Language and Communication Studies
UEA Research Groups: Faculty of Arts and Humanities > Research Groups > Philosophy
Faculty of Arts and Humanities > Research Groups > Wittgenstein
Depositing User: Pure Connector
Date Deposited: 19 Dec 2015 07:06
Last Modified: 21 Jul 2023 09:37
URI: https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/55754
DOI: 10.1353/phl.2015.0011

Actions (login required)

View Item View Item