What is “Self”? This question has been lasting from philosophy has been set up. Until today, it is still a controversial question among philosophers, or not only be considered by philosophers but also almost all of the people have at least once to consider “who am I?” Actually, there are several theories of personal identity. In this essay, I will discuss the basic three theories mentioned in personal identity written by Chad Vance, he lists: the body, the soul, and psychology as three proposed answers of “Who Am I?” (Vance) I will briefly discuss the Body theory and focus on compare the soul and psychology theories.
The body has something to do with our continued existence. Now, my friends can see me, talk with me, recognized me among the groups, because of my body. When others talk about me, people will recall me with my face. In the Chad Vance’s article, he illustrated the body theory in a story – Day Man and Night Man. A human body is shared to two different lives; they have totally different personalities, jobs, and friends. The only common thing about them is the body, but we can’t say they are the one person. Another example which is from an article What Makes You You?, What if you get a terrible disease and need to replace your liver, kidney, heart, lungs, blood, and facial tissue with synthetic parts, but after all the surgery, you’re fine and can live your life normally. Would your family say that you had died because most of your physical body was gone? No, they wouldn’t. You’d still be you. None of that is needed for you to be you. (Urban) So we can say, the body doesn’t make you you.
How about Psychology? Before we discuss the psychology whether defined “self” or not, we need to know what is psychology. Psychology is how we thinking and knowing this world. Why would people have the different psychology? I think psychology is the cumulative process through your memories, experiences, social circle, family background, and etc. No one would have the exact experiences with others, so we say psychology is unique. So someone would say psychology could identify “Self”.
But Derek Parfit’s teletransporter thought the experiment has a different voice of the psychology theory, which he first described in his book Reasons and Persons – It’s the year 2700, there is an unimagined technology called teleportation—the ability to transport yourself to distant places at the speed of light. Here’s how it works— You go into a Departure Chamber—a little room the size of a small cubicle. You set your location—let’s say you’re in Boston and your destination is London—and when you’re ready to go, you press the button on the wall. The chamber walls then scan your entire body, uploading the exact molecular makeup of your body—every atom that makes up every part of you and its precise location—and as it scans, it destroys, so every cell in your body is destroyed by the scanner as it goes.
When it’s finished (the Departure Chamber is now empty after destroying all of your cells), it beams your body’s information to an Arrival Chamber in London, which has all the necessary atoms waiting there ready to go. The Arrival Chamber uses the data to re-form your entire body with its storage of atoms, and when it’s finished you walk out of the chamber in London looking and feeling exactly how you did back in Boston.
In 2700, this is common technology. Everyone you know travels by teleportation. But then one day, you head into the Departure Chamber in Boston for your normal morning commute to your job in London, you press the big button on the wall, and you hear the scanner turn on, but it doesn’t work.
The normal split-second blackout never happens, and when you walk out of the chamber, sure enough, you’re still in Boston. You head to the check-in counter and tell the woman working there that the Departure Chamber is broken.
She looks down at her records and says, it looks like the scanner worked and collected its data just fine, but the cell destroyer that usually works in conjunction with the scanner has malfunctioned.”
But you explained that it couldn’t have worked you are still here. But She pulls up video screen and points out that you are in London. You still cannot believe it, because you are still here. At that point, her supervisor comes into the room and explains that she’s correct—the scanner worked as normal and you’re in London as planned. The only thing that didn’t work was the cell destroyer in the Departure Chamber here in Boston. And they are going to destroy your cells to keep the thing in normal. And even though this isn’t anything that wasn’t going to happen before—in fact, you have your cells destroyed twice every day—suddenly, you’re horrified at the prospect. You said you will die, but the supervisor said no because you are already in the London, they just need to do what they did every time to transfer you to London. Finally, you are screaming and escaping because you do not want they destroy your cells. (Parfit)
Back to the psychology theory, why you scared when the supervisor said they are going to destroy your cells when you who has the same psychology has been London. So psychology theory does not work in this situation.
Additional, continuity is another point to against psychology theory which "the youth me" and "now me" may have different psychology, because of the experience and education different in those periods, but it is "me". For example, when I was a child, the places I would like to travel somewhere fancy and beautiful; but for now, I would like to go somewhere historical or cultural. My preference changed through the time, but I am still me.
Last is Soul theory. I cannot explain what soul is, I believe most of the people can neither. Walter M. Miller, Jr. said You don’t have a soul. You are a Soul. You have a body. ("What Is A Human Soul, Where Is It Located, What Does It Do?")
Soul theory reminds me that Sherlock Homes said in The Sign of the Four " when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth” (Doyle). The soul is mysterious, but after eliminating other theories, the only answer comes to soul. I am expecting secret of the soul could be found in the future.