Chapter 14 Exercises: Who Am I?

Exercise 14.1 — The Ship of Theseus Spectrum (Comprehension)

Consider the following cases and arrange them on a spectrum from "clearly the same person/thing" to "clearly a different person/thing" to "genuinely unclear." Then explain what criterion you used — and whether that criterion is consistent across all cases.

  1. You at age 5 and you now.
  2. You before and after a dramatic religious conversion that changed your values, worldview, and personality.
  3. A person before and after severe dementia that has erased most of their autobiographical memories.
  4. A teleportation copy: your body is destroyed and an exact replica is created elsewhere with all your memories.
  5. You after a minor haircut.
  6. You after twenty years of therapy that substantially changed your emotional patterns and relationship to yourself.
  7. A person who committed a terrible crime at 17 and is now 45, genuinely remorseful, having served their sentence.

After completing the spectrum, write a paragraph reflecting: What does your pattern of judgments reveal about your implicit theory of personal identity?

Exercise 14.2 — Parfit's Fission Case (Analysis)

Consider the fission case: Your brain is divided in half, and each half is implanted in a separate (otherwise brainless) body. Both resulting persons wake up with your memories, personality, and beliefs.

Part A: Walk through the four possible answers: - (a) Both resulting persons are you - (b) Neither is you - (c) One is you but not the other - (d) The question has no determinate answer

What is wrong with each of the first three options? Why might (d) be correct?

Part B: Parfit argues that if personal identity is indeterminate in this case, it was never as deep and important as we thought. Do you find this conclusion liberating or distressing? Explain why — this is not a trick question; both responses are philosophically defensible.

Part C: If personal identity is not what matters, what does matter? Parfit says "psychological continuity and connectedness." Is this sufficient, or does something get lost when we let go of the concept of personal identity?

Exercise 14.3 — Narrative Audit (Application)

Part A: Write the "story of yourself" in 300–400 words — the narrative of how you came to be who you are, with the key episodes, turning points, and themes that feel important to you.

Part B: Identify: - The narrative's implicit protagonist: What kind of person does the story imply you are? - The narrative's implicit theme: What does the story say your life is about? - The narrative's implicit future: What does the story suggest is coming next?

Part C: Now ask the hard question: Is this narrative fully accurate, or does it distort some things? Are there episodes you have edited out that don't fit the narrative? Are there aspects of who you are that the story doesn't include?

Part D: If you could revise the narrative — not by changing what happened but by reinterpreting it — what would you change, and why?

Exercise 14.4 — Bad Faith and "That's Just How I Am" (Application)

List five things you regularly say about yourself using the formulas "I'm just not ," "I've always been ," or "I can't ___."

For each statement: 1. Is this a description of a fixed fact, or a description of a pattern that has persisted because it hasn't been seriously challenged? 2. What would the existentialist say — is this a genuine characteristic or a comfortable story? 3. Is there evidence from your life that contradicts this self-description — times when you were different? 4. If this is bad faith, what would it take to stop hiding behind it?

Exercise 14.5 — Buddhist Investigation (Analysis/Reflection)

This exercise asks you to attempt a genuine philosophical investigation rather than just theoretical analysis.

Find ten minutes of quiet. Sit comfortably. Then ask: "What am I?"

Not rhetorically. Actually look. Try to find the "I" that is asking the question — the subject of your experience. Look for it directly. What do you find?

Write 300–400 words describing what you actually found when you investigated. Be honest — if you found nothing, say so. If you found something, describe it. If the investigation felt impossible or confusing, explain why.

Then: Does your experience support or complicate the Buddhist no-self doctrine? Does the investigation change anything about how you understand your sense of self?

Exercise 14.6 — Social Identity Mapping (Analysis)

Draw a simple diagram (or list) of your social identities — the categories assigned to you by society that you carry whether you chose them or not. Consider: race, gender, class background, nationality, religion, educational background, physical ability/disability, sexuality.

For each identity: 1. Was it chosen, assigned, or somewhere in between? 2. Does it constrain possibilities available to you? How? 3. Does it open possibilities available to you? How? 4. Do you identify with this category, resist it, or hold a complicated relationship to it?

Then write a 200-word reflection: How have your social identities shaped who you are in ways you might not have chosen? How has Taylor's "engaged authenticity" — working thoughtfully with inherited identities rather than rejecting or accepting them unreflectively — operated (or failed to operate) in your own life?

Exercise 14.7 — The Consistency of Commitment (Synthesis)

You are the same person today as the person who, five years ago, made promises, formed friendships, and committed to projects. Or are you?

Part A: Identify a commitment or promise you made in the past that you find difficult to maintain now because you have changed significantly as a person. (If you can't think of one from your own life, describe a case you can imagine or have observed.)

Part B: Which theory of personal identity provides the strongest ground for saying you are still bound by that commitment? Which provides the weakest ground?

Part C: Is there a practical criterion — independent of the metaphysical theories — for deciding when change is sufficient to release you from a prior commitment? What would that criterion be?

Progressive Project — Identity Section

Add to the Meaning/Identity section of your philosophical journal.

Write 400–600 words addressing the following:

  1. Your current theory of personal identity: Which of the frameworks in this chapter — psychological continuity, narrative, existentialist, Buddhist no-self, or some combination — comes closest to how you actually think about what makes you you?

  2. The malleability question: If the self is not fixed, what does that mean for how you want to change and grow? Are there patterns in yourself you have been treating as fixed that might not be? Are there ways you have been trying to change that might require rewriting your narrative rather than just changing behavior?

  3. Connection to the meaning chapter: Your answer to "what makes my life meaningful?" (from Chapter 13) depends partly on your answer to "who am I?" (from Chapter 14). How does your theory of personal identity connect to your account of meaning? If the self is a narrative, meaning might be about writing a good story. If the self is a process, meaning might be about the quality of engagement at each moment. If identity is partly social, meaning might require attending to collective as well as individual flourishing.

You will return to these entries in later chapters on relationships, work, and the good life.