Question

In your own words, explain why fission presents a problem for the psychological account of personal identity.

Answer 1

The fission scenario is a though experiment that showcases a problem for the psychological account of personal identity. This is because both the outcomes of the experiment, the left and right side of the hemisphere, Y1 and Y2, can be considered to be psychologically continuous with and therefore identical to the individual, X. However, Y1 and Y2 are not identical to one another despite having shared many properties. From this scenario, it maybe concluded that a thing could be identical with two non-identical things and this finding violates the transitivity of personal identity.