The Basis of Human Identity

When time moves forward, the atoms in the body are changing. Can we cay that I'm not the same person at an earlier time? Put it more precisely, what makes me, me? The predominant view in the philosophical world today is more incline toward materialism. Personal identity is located in physical body, particularly in the  brain. One aspect of the brain that preserve an identity is memory. However, this raise a further question. How if the memory lost? Logically, we can says either one lost their personality, or lost half of their personality. Richard Restak says that "Loss memory is perceived as no less than an assault of identity". This assault has a serious ramifications, to make us ponder deeper on the issue of identity. Suppose a criminal does some violent acts, against the law. Before the judgement, he suddenly lost his memory. Can we free him from the verdict? Consequently, In materialistic framework , we can say that he is not the same person as before, since his personal identity is lost, or half lost. Therefore, there must be some other theory that unified the identity, that could immune to time, and the regression of body, specifically brain for otherwise, all criminals will just harm their own brain, so they can wash their hands completely, from their enormity.

        The notion of psyche need to come in. Richard Swinburne in his provoking book 'Are we Bodies or Soul?' fight for the idea of soul. In this book, Swinburne disagree with materialism but substance dualism, a view in which personal identity, grounded in a substance, namely 'soul'. The soul is the unshakable basis of person identity, regardless of some physical changes in human body. The basis that makes a person A and person B different and distinct, even they swap their body. Many has claim that the core problem of substance dualism is that, we cannot prove the existence of soul through scientific observation, for soul is immaterial. Dennet represent the materialist philosophers aptly, when he claim that the idea of soul is merely an illusion and prop up by folklore. However, to say we cannot prove it visibly, does not mean we has no good evidence that could point to its reality. Yet, there is also a progress in literature to support the notion of soul, philosophically and scientifically. Take for instance 'The Spiritual Brain' book, written by Mario Beauregard and Danyse O' Leary. The core argument for the existence of the soul is found in our identification, of the relation between mind, consciousness and brain. If the mind and consciousness and mind is not synonymous of the material brain, we have a good evidence to believe in the existence of the immaterial soul.

               Mario and Danyse argued for the immaterial reality of the mind, through the provoking example of NED (Near-Death experiences). In 1991, thirty five year old Atlanta based singer and songwriters, Pam Reynold having a brain surgery. Pam's heart was stopped, and her EEG brain waves flattened into total silence. After awhile, he come to be conscious again, her heart start to beat again. Later on, she explain her experience of floating out of the operation room and see what happened. The many cases of NED show that actually consciousness is not merely locked in material reality, but beyond. It survive above the dictum of the clinical death, a state in which, body and brain stop to functions.  The evidence of NED open the possibility of immaterial object, such as soul, a substance like what the philosopher Henri Bergson called as 'life force' (Elan vital). It is not brain that preserve life, but soul. And the soul is where the mind stays. Moreover, one of the other argument to support the immaterial soul is through human respond to pain. The feeling of pain is totally different from the movement of the neurons.If I could say, my body is in pain, who is "I"? Therefore, I' am not identical with my body hence, I am more or at least distinct from my body. By this evidence, the possibility of soul as the basis of personal identity cannot be quickly dismissed philosophically speaking. Apparently the reality of the soul has been recorded in the Bible, in the very beginning, in the book of Genesis. It was recorded in Genesis 1:26, that human who were made from dust, filled by God a life force, a substance that make material objects moves, breathe, and think. This breath of life in man (Ruach), that makes us precious and have a unshakable personal identity. Although our memory lost, our body degenerated, me is always me, the precious and valuable being of God, loved by Him as the Bible says so. Not just the soul-hypothesis is important as to provide the basis of human personal identity, it also needed, for the various ethical issues as well.