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can you do me a favour...
and read this over?.. I have to submit it for my philosophy class in a hour or so.. if there are any mistakes, or if you think I should add something, it would be dandy if you let me know :) spanks.
"If the brain remains the same, then the person remains the same". To say this would also be to say that "if the brain changes, so does the person." I disagree with this statement. Where do you draw the line of what constitutes a change? Something as minute as losing brain cells over drug usage would, by definition, change the brain. But the loss of these cells does not affect the way in which thoughts are produced; it may slow down the process, but ultimately, the result remains the same. Along the same lines, cells are replaced on a regular basis as they do die. Eventually, all the cells that make up a brain will be different, changed. Yet the person is still the same, thinking the same thoughts, remembering the same things. There are also more extreme situations in which the brain is changed, such as concussions. Excessive brain trauma can alter a persons speech patterns, movements, sight, etc, but who is to say that it alters a persons ability to think in the same manner as before the trauma? Maybe the way the thoughts are expressed has changed, but not the thoughts themselves.
The brain is the motor for the body. It is also the compartment in which thoughts, feelings and memories are held, but not the place in which these things are formed. The only way that a person could change as a result of the brain changing, would be if the brain was the actual origin of thoughts, feelings and memories.
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Mar 17, 02
