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Dualist Theory

Richard Swinburne, however, disagrees with Parfit's theory. He states that a fundamental difficulty of the theory is that it commits Parfit to factual claims which could very well be false. Swinburne argues for the classical dualist theory, such that persons are comprised of both their bodies and their immaterial stuff1

Swinburne allows for two additional types of existence for a person: the reincarnated, and disembodied self. We all have a body to explore the world around us, and affect the world around us. If all of the sudden you are moving some other body's arms and legs, and receiving sense perception from some other body's senses, then you can be said to have a reincarnated experience. Further, he proposes that it is possible also to ``live'' such that we effect change on the world through no body at all, and receive senses from the world without using our body's physical sense receivers; this case is called disembodied existence.

Against Locke, Swinburne also states that many of us do indeed forget large portions of our lives. As such, it is logically possible to have been reincarnated, or disembodied without any recollection of our prior selves. All that a person needs, in order to be a person, is a conscious experience, to be the subject of experiences. For any person who is conscious, there is not logical impossibility that the person may continue to exist without is body. This allows for the logical possibility for continuity of the soul even after their bodies do not. Further that this fits in with a widened Aristotelian view of the body being an imperfect copy of the form of humans.


next up previous
Next: Final Thoughts Up: On Personal Identity Previous: Bundle Theory
Emilio Recio 2001-03-18