Thought Experiment: Total Lack of Recall
This is in relation with future shock.
Arnold Conan had just made an unpleasant discovery: he wasn't Arnold Conan at all. Or rather, he used not to be. It was all rather confusing.
This is the best sense he could make of his unusual autobiography. He was born Alan E. Wood. Wood was, by all accounts, a deeply unpleasant man: egotistical, selfish, cruel and ruthless. Two years ago, Wood had got into deep trouble with the State Bureau of Investigation. He was given a choice: spend the rest of his life in maximum security prison, where thy were make sure he was victimised by the other inmates; or have his memory erased and replaced with that of an entirely fictitious creation of the spooks at the SBI. he chose the latter. And so it was that Alan E. Wood was put under a general anaesthetic, and when he woke up, he had forgotten all about his life to date. Instead, he remembered an entirely fictitious past, that of Arnold Conan, the man he now believed he was.
Conan had established that these were the facts. But he still did not know who he was: Wood or Conan?
What do you guys think?
Taken from "The Pig that wants to be Eaten" by Julian Baggini
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5 comments:
I would say that he is Conan, and was Wood, since for all intents and purposes, Wood ceased to exist the moment he had his memory erased, and chose to live the life of another identity, be it fictitious or real, and that he lived the life of a fictitious identity of Conan, but in the physical body known to the rest of the world as Wood. So I would say that he was Conan when he awoke and lived a real life from then on, despite a fictitious past.
But who should he thinks he is now?
That's for him to decide: whether to resume the identity of Conan which he (may)know is fictitious, or to resume the identity of Wood, which he knows nothing about since his memory was wiped, but risks assuming the criminal legacy associated with that identity. (Aside: if he does this, he runs the risk of questioning whether or not the identity of Woods is also factitious, since he once believe the identity of Conan was real!) Should he do this, however, it would be like waking up with the identity of a criminal and inheriting the effects of the crime without the ability to redeem himself since his memory was wiped. I'd say this dilemma is a harsher punishment than he probably deserved, but one he wrought on himself.
Does it matter whether he is Conan or Wood? Whatever the name, he is still himself, with all his attributes as a person and whatever he makes of them himslf through his choices and decisions. I don't think a name would change this.
It would. Having a new identity, and have to merge with an old one. I believe he doesn't want to have such a past identity. But it is him. If his memory all flow back, what are the real attributes and personality that he really has?
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