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Shadowing practice: Arguments Against Personal Identity: Crash Course Philosophy #20

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  1. Craschkurs philosophy is brought to you by Squarespace.0:03
  2. Squarespace.0:06
  3. Share your passion with the world.0:07
  4. In your day -to -day life, you probably assume a whole bunch of different identities.0:08
  5. You might be a sister to your brother, a daughter to your parents, a colleague to your co -worker, a mentor to the kids you teach.0:13
  6. Or you might think of your identity as being based on your interests, your skills, or things like your gender or ethnicity.0:19
  7. Whatever they are, I bet you think of your identities as being pretty fixed, stable, and you like them that way.0:24
  8. And if that's the case, I'd like you to meet this guy, 18th century Scottish philosopher David Hume, because he says you're wrong.0:30
  9. Hume argued that the idea of the self doesn't persist over time.0:37
  10. He said there is no you that is the same person from birth to death.0:40
  11. He said the concept of the self is just an illusion.0:45
  12. This could be either liberating or terrifying, depending on how you look at it.0:48
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  1. I mean, if you don't have an identity, you don't have to worry about identity theft.0:52
  2. But what does it mean for my understanding of myself and for the people I love, if there is no single constant me?0:55
  3. If that's the case, then the person I'm married to is literally not the person I fell in love with or made those vows to.1:02
  4. Which would suggest that I don't need to keep those vows, and neither does she.1:09
  5. And what about personal responsibility?1:13
  6. How can you hold someone accountable for their actions if they're not the same person now that they were before?1:15
  7. And how can you be responsible for something that you did if you're always changing?1:20
  8. This is gonna get dicey.1:24
  9. If you joined me last time when we talked about personal identity, you'll remember that we considered two main possibilities for what might preserve you as the same person over1:35
  10. time.1:44
  11. One approach was the body theory, the sort of go -to view of things, which holds that you remain you over time because you just occupy the same body from1:45
  12. birth to death.1:52
  13. And the other was John Locke's memory theory, the view that your memories are what makes you the same person over time.1:53
  14. I'm me because I remember being me in the past.1:58
  15. But both of these models have some problems.2:01
  16. No matter how much we want the idea of permanent, persistent selves to be a thing, David Hume said they just aren't.2:03
  17. For him, it was really a no -brainer.2:09
  18. If having a certain identity means possessing the same set of properties, he said, then how could anyone really maintain the same identity from one moment to the next?2:11
  19. I clearly don't share all of the same properties of my childhood self or even of myself before I shaved today, so Hume would say that it's silly to pretend2:19
  20. that I'm still me.2:27
  21. But I feel like me, so what did Hume think was going on?2:28
  22. Hume said the so -called self is just a bundle of impressions consisting of a zillion different things, my body, my mind, my emotions, preferences, memories, even labels that are2:32
  23. imposed on me by others.2:41
  24. Think of a box and say it's marked Hank and then put in that box everything that makes me who I am.2:43
  25. My DNA, mannerisms, political leanings, my glasses, the relationships I have with others, the various roles I hold, then you take away the box.2:48
  26. Hume's point is, the self is just shorthand for all the junk in the box, and the fact that there is no box points out that there's no single underlying2:56
  27. thing that holds it all together.3:04
  28. And meanwhile, some of the stuff in the bundle goes away and new stuff shows up.3:06
  29. So if you look at the bundle that is me now when compared with the bundle that my mom and dad brought home from the hospital, they would be almost3:09
  30. completely different.3:15
  31. So Hume said we're all just ever -changing bundles of impressions that our minds are fooled into thinking of as constant because they're packaged in these fleshy receptacles that basically3:16
  32. look the same from one day to the next.3:26
  33. To explore this some more, let's bounce over to the Thought Bubble for some flash philosophy.3:28
  34. Contemporary British philosopher Derek Parfit, probably after watching a Star Trek marathon, posed this thought experiment.3:32
  35. Imagine a machine that breaks you down, atom by atom, copies all of that information, and transmits it to Mars at the speed of light.3:38
  36. Once that information gets to Mars, another machine uses it to recreate you, atom by atom, using copies of the same organic stuff that you were composed of here on3:44
  37. Earth.3:53
  38. The person who wakes up on Mars has all of the same memories and personality as you did, and that person thinks it's you.3:54
  39. So here's the question, is this space travel?4:01
  40. Did you travel to Mars?4:03
  41. Is the transported person really you?4:04
  42. Or was a new being created that happened to correspond to you, atom by atom, thought by thought?4:07
  43. Now, consider this.4:13
  44. What if a new version of the machine is created so that now, instead of destroying your body, it can simply be scanned and all of the information can be4:14
  45. recreated on Mars, but the you here on Earth still exists.4:21
  46. Now, did you travel, or were you just replicated?4:25
  47. If you're here on Earth, are you also on Mars?4:28
  48. Wow.4:31
  49. Uh, yeah.4:32
  50. Thanks Thought Bubble, I think.4:34
  51. Parfit agrees with Hume that there isn't such a thing as personal identity over time.4:35
  52. So he says, in either case, you didn't travel through space.4:40
  53. That's just a new you that shows up on Mars, whether the old you was destroyed or still exists.4:43
  54. And you know what?4:48
  55. Even if you hopped on a spaceship and flew to Mars the old -fashioned way, it'd still be a new you that arrives because you would have experienced all sorts4:49
  56. of changes during the trip.4:56
  57. But the thing is, Parfit thought Hume missed a really important point.4:57
  58. Even though there isn't a singular you from birth to death, Parfit says that each of us has a psychological connectedness with ourselves over time.5:00
  59. Think about your life as being like a piece of chainmail.5:08
  60. The mesh that is your personal identity is made up of lots of separate chains, and those chains intersect at certain points to make up the chainmail.5:10
  61. As you follow the timeline of one particular set of links, new links are being created that add to the chain.5:17
  62. And as time passes, the links that are farther back in your past slowly start to drop off as they lose their psychological connection to you.5:22
  63. So when you stopped loving Dora the Explorer, that link dropped away.5:29
  64. And when you discovered that you totally loved philosophy, a new link was created.5:32
  65. But some chains intersect with that other chain, and they have links that persist for a long time, like the love you have for your parents.5:36
  66. So Parfit says that, sure, I'm not the same person I was when I was in elementary school, and I won't be the same person when I die.5:42
  67. I'm not even really the same person I was when I started this sentence, because every experience changes us, at least a little.5:48
  68. But parts of me survive the passage of time, because they're psychologically connected to my previous selves.5:55
  69. And survival is what's important for Parfit.6:01
  70. As long as enough of the elements of you persist, you see yourself as relevantly the same.6:03
  71. But not for a whole lifetime.6:08
  72. Parfit would say that none of the you that existed at birth is still around.6:10
  73. Your physical matter is almost all different, and you have no memory of that time, and your preferences have completely changed.6:14
  74. Baby you has not survived, but some of last year you probably has.6:20
  75. And Parfit seems to have hit on an important insight here.6:25
  76. Think about what you do when you catch up with an old friend.6:27
  77. The first thing you do is ask what's happened since the last time you spoke.6:30
  78. What you're doing, without really thinking about it, is recognizing that both of you have changed.6:33
  79. If the changes are big enough, then your friend could seem like a stranger at first.6:38
  80. So when it's someone you care about, you take the time to reacquaint yourself with this new person, because you recognize the need to always know the most updated version6:41
  81. of that person.6:50
  82. But the opposite can also happen.6:51
  83. Think about that aunt you only see at Christmas, who still pinches your cheek and gives you a new American Girl doll every year.6:53
  84. She probably knew what you loved when you were 10, but she doesn't know the current you, the version of you she's shopping for at Christmas doesn't exist anymore.6:58
  85. But since you rarely see each other and you haven't made the effort to know the new yous, you're both looking past each other in that painfully awkward way that7:07
  86. makes holidays with relatives so special.7:15
  87. So now let's think back to the question we discussed earlier.7:17
  88. If I'm not the same me over time, how do I make sense of promises, obligations, and responsibilities?7:19
  89. Parfit's theory gives us an answer.7:25
  90. Your degree of responsibility and obligation corresponds to your degree of connection to the person who made the promise, or incurred the responsibility.7:26
  91. So if you were a kindergarten bully who grew up to be a totally sweet guy who would never bully anyone, you don't need to feel any guilt.7:34
  92. You're not that person anymore.7:40
  93. You don't bear responsibility for that person's actions.7:41
  94. Likewise, if you and your childhood bestie pinky swore to be each other's maids of honor when you grew up, but now that two of you have nothing in common,7:45
  95. you're off the hook for that promise.7:51
  96. Now, about those marriage vows?7:53
  97. Well, a promise that lasts a lifetime doesn't really make sense in Parfit's view, and there are actually people using this line of reasoning who argue that marriage contracts should7:54
  98. be temporary with the option of renewal, kind of like a cell phone plan.8:02
  99. But others have said that vows like this can actually stay relevant even after a lifetime of changes.8:06
  100. Over the years, you and your spouse change and become different people, but these thinkers point out you may be constantly reaffirming the promises you made on your wedding day.8:11
  101. So a wedding vow isn't a promise you made years ago, when you were a completely different person.8:19
  102. It's a promise you made this morning, when you took out the trash and cleaned up the hairball the cat left on the rug.8:23
  103. Why is it always on the rug?8:28
  104. So clearly, we're not talking about Batman or science fiction or hypothetical trips to Mars anymore.8:29
  105. We're talking about how philosophy can teach you about yourself and the people you care about, and how you can continue to know them and be close to them over8:34
  106. time.8:41
  107. Today we continue to our exploration of personal identity, learning about Hume's bundle theory and Parfit's theory of survival through psychological connectedness.8:42
  108. Next time, we're going to address a term we've been taking for granted throughout this whole discussion.8:50
  109. Person.8:55
  110. This episode of Crash Course Philosophy is brought to you by Squarespace.8:56
  111. Squarespace helps to create websites, blogs, or online stores for you and your ideas.8:59
  112. Websites look professionally designed, regardless of skill level, no coding required.9:03
  113. Try Squarespace at Squarespace .com slash Crash Course for a special offer.9:08
  114. Squarespace.9:11
  115. Share your passion with the world.9:12
  116. Crash Course Philosophy is produced in association with PBS Digital Studios.9:14
  117. You can head over to their channel and check out a playlist of the latest episodes from shows like PBS Game Show, The Good Stuff, and Gross Science.9:17
  118. This episode of Crash Course was filmed in the Dr.9:24
  119. Cheryl C.9:26
  120. Kinney Crash Course Studio with the help of all these awesome people, and our equally awesome graphics team is Thought Café.9:27

American accent training for academic English at B2

This is Crash Course philosophy: a native speaker delivering complex ideas about personal identity and David Hume's arguments against the self. At 227 words per minute, it moves faster than 83% of the catalogue, so it demands your full attention. The pace is brisk but deliberate, characteristic of American academic lecture style where clarity and engagement matter as much as speed.

The 132 lines span a 12-minute argument that builds from everyday examples of identity through philosophical objection to practical implications. You hear how an educated native speaker structures reasoning in English: defining terms, posing rhetorical questions, then systematically dismantling them. This is what english speaking practice sounds like when your job is to be understood by people thinking hard about what you are saying.

The language patterns: how native speakers argue in English

Start with line 4: "In your day -to -day life, you probably assume a whole bunch of different identities." That opening uses everyday speech to draw you into philosophy. Then notice the reduction in line 20: "This is gonna get dicey." That single relaxed form sits in the middle of rigorous argument, showing you how American speakers code-switch without losing authority.

Look at line 14: "But what does it mean for my understanding of myself and for the people I love, if there is no single constant me?" The structure is loose and conversational, but the ideas are demanding. Line 10 delivers the counterpoint: "He said there is no you that is the same person from birth to death." Each sentence uses pauses to separate the clauses. The intonation falls, then rises again to pull you into the next thought. This is english shadowing practice that teaches you how to pronounce complex ideas with clarity, not just individual words.

  • Notice line 5: "You might be a sister to your brother, a daughter to your parents, a colleague to your co -worker, a mentor to the kids you teach." Native speakers group parallel ideas with rhythm, not just grammar.
  • American academic English softens strong claims with conversational phrases like "I bet you think" (line 7) and "I'd like you to meet this guy" (line 8). Formality comes from the content, not from stiffness.

How to practise speaking this English: work through the argument

Start with lines 1 to 8. Get comfortable with the speaker's pace and the setup. Shadow the opening: "In your day -to -day life, you probably assume a whole bunch of different identities." Then work on line 8: "Hume, because he says you're wrong." The directness matters. These early sections set the tone for everything that follows.

Move to lines 9 to 14. These sentences carry the core argument, then the emotional hook. Shadow each one separately until the rhythm sits with you. Line 20 gives you the reduction: "This is gonna get dicey." Repeat it multiple times. That one word shows you how American speakers relax grammar without losing edge.

Finish with lines 15 to 19. These build the consequences. The ideas are abstract, but the speech is direct. Speak them aloud to feel how the logic flows. Work through all 132 lines once you have the major sections. This is improve your english speaking made concrete: learning not just the words, but the pace and reasoning behind them.

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