h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Yes. would definitely recommend it. don't know your background, but if you want an interesting introduction to western philosophy check it out. entertain storyline as well.

There you have it, two positive reccommendations so far. How can you now NOT buy this book?

By not paying for it!

Touche.

well i'm a geographer at hart with a friend ( the onein the first post) who does philosophy, well thats my back ground, and as for not buying it well I will just steal his copy

Beg, borrow or steal it. All is good.

Become alumni at the premier institution for the academia and intelliegensia of H2G2 at The University of Life:

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There are many departments in different faculties available for you to make your contribution into an ever-widening field of research. The Philosophy department is now open and hoping to do a brisk trade. Visit us at:

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Clive

Ooh, great! How do you mean "personal identity"? I think I know, but it might mean something else from how I'm thinking...

Ooh, great! How do you mean "personal identity"? I think I know, but it might mean something else from how I'm thinking...

~~A~~

My lecturers summed the search for personal identity up liked this:

What are YOU?

What does it mean for a thing to be the SAME or DIFFERENT (ie. sharing of properties, continuation of conscious memories )

Do I admit that I CHANGE? (grow older, accept new ideas, discard old ones dye my hair, lose an arm) Is my personal identity the SAME? Am I still ME? Am I just the Sum of these properties?

If I admit to change, can I still be the SAME thing as before?

This isn't a perfect rendition of the total topic but raising these kinds of questions I think will be good for me to write a thorough introduction to philosophy (I've got some classic and contempory examples that deal with these and other issues which I can base a lot of what I want to write around, but not only that it is (I hope) at least engaging enough to fire the imagination, to get people to think about these questions.
Because, when you get down to it, What are YOU, really?

If you want to join the department follow the instructions at the admissions office, write about whatever you like (hey, you might even decide to develop the ideas expressed in this forum) you could even write an introduction to philosophy of your own. The point of having synopsis on our index pages is to make sure there is no duplication of effort for two people to finish only to have been writing about the same thing would be just plain silly.

Aside from Real Life essays to be written and handed in occupying some of my time, I'd love to keep adding to this, I hope this is just the start.

Anyone else who's is interested in sigining up (and not just in philosophy, they've got spaces for science, maths, history, english, the lot, quite frankly) Follow the links above and come and swell the halls of residence. Stay up late, inbibe large quantities of alcohol, live life in destitute squalor, get educated. In short:

Be a student (again).

Clive [* <- that is meant to be me with a motorboard.

Or for the more sedate; drop by the Common Room for tea, biscuits and a quiet chat:

http://www.h2g2.com/A353026

¬*


Oh and I got the motorboard thing sorted now. The hat is being flung into the air.

Not sure if its just the terms are confusing. I was taught it as ideas and forms many moons ago ...

Numbers are a very simple example. You can represent the number one, you know it exist (it has a meaning) but you can only get at the idea by looking at real examples of things (forms) - one apple, one horse etc and somehow menatally removing all the other properties these things have other than the 'oneness' they share in common (accidents)

You know the number one is out there somewhere, it has specific properties but you can't actually touch it.

(realise this is a gross simplification of a few thousand years of philosophy - apologise to anyone tearing their hair out)

What I'm interested in is "Why am I me?" Confused? It does me too...
What I mean to say is, I have only the perception of one person. Me, and nobody else. From the look of things people only have the perception of themselves too. We can guess at what other people are feeling, but we can NEVER know the truth.
So, why was I born me and not you? Why was I born in a developed country with a high standard of living, when there are far more people being born in undeveloped countries? Why was I born female?
Do the other people actually exist, or is it really just my perception that is wrong?
Well, let's try. I tell my sister, "You don't exist". Of course she won't like that, and I won't like it if she tells me that I don't exist! But does that mean that she exists?

Sorry, the one thing I know for certain is that I can babble on for hours...

Hmmm. Lots of questions. Some of what you mention you only had a probability of being. For instance, you only had a 50% chance of being either male or female. Some things I would ascribe to just fate 'Why are some people born into poverty and others not? Can people change the world around them, to work out of poverty and so on? Well that's one for the sociologists really.

Interestingly, you've nailed an old philosophical conundrum when you said, 'I only have my own perception to guide me' [THEREFORE] we can never know what others are truly like in their thoughts and actions. (They could all be sophisticated robots - how could you tell the difference?) Your next question follows from that:

'How then, do I know whether other people really exist at all, if I only know my own case?'

I fhtis is true and you live in a solopsistic universe where you are the only thing in it, all the rest is mere projection of your own creation. It is not so supprising that your sister should protest at having her existence vetoed

Hmmm. Lots of questions. Some of what you mention you only had a probability of being. For instance, you only had a 50% chance of being either male or female. Some things I would ascribe to just fate 'Why are some people born into poverty and others not? Can people change the world around them, to work out of poverty and so on? Well that's one for the sociologists really.

Interestingly, you've nailed an old philosophical conundrum when you said, 'I only have my own perception to guide me' [THEREFORE] we can never know what others are truly like in their thoughts and actions. (They could all be sophisticated robots - how could you tell the difference?) Your next question follows from that:

'How then, do I know whether other people really exist at all, if I only know my own case?'

I this is true and you live in a solopsistic universe where you are the only thing in it, everybody else is mere projection of your own imagination. It is not so supprising that your sister should protest at having her existence vetoed by you, it is how you would expect her to react. This means that me writing this message isn't me writing this message but you writing this message to you, which means that you already know all of what I've been talking about.

Of course It could be me who is the solopsistic inhabitor of this Universe in which case you are all of delusions of MY imagination.

Ignore the first posting it was incomplete when it accidentally got posted.

Confounded Microsoft intellipoint, double-clicking, razza-frazza,*!^>?~#¬!!£$%**!

Do you realise that this means I invented Microsoft?

Perhaps you were looking for a little extra drama in your life.

Either Microsoft exists, or it is a figment of someone's immagination.

If it is a figment of someon'es immagination then they are obviously so warped and delude that they should be locked away - but since no-one else exists I don't see who can do it.

I'll plead William of Ockham and say it is more likely (and reasuring) to think the universe exists and Microsoft is just a freak accident.