Is Losing Your Memory Equivalent to Dying?

[Werg22]

Say that you were swapped back to the past, be it yesterday or 10 years ago, without having any memory of having lived in the future. Would you consider this some sort of death? After all, your current self would fall out of existence.

Whatever is your stance on this, it brings an interesting point; it could be said that we die at every instant since what we once were is no more, that is our current self is constantly changing.

Do you think this is tenable or not? Give out your reasons.

 

[out of whack]

Naw. Disappearance is not death, neither is amnesia. We change all the time, along with everything else. Call these changes "death" obscures the meaning of the word with no obvious benefit other than poetic.

 

[Werg22]

But this is philosophy. In its terms, death is not bound to its biological definition.

 

[out of whack]

Alright then, but state your definition if you want to use a different one.

 

[singleton]

OP: What do you define as being 'alive' (if it exists)?

 

[DaveC426913]

Say that you were swapped back to the past, be it yesterday or 10 years ago, without having any memory of having lived in the future. Would you consider this some sort of death? After all, your current self would fall out of existence.

Perhaps to other people, but to you you're still goin' strong.

 

[Werg22]

I don't know who exactly you're defining as "you" here. The biological entity is certainly the same, but can the same be said about its mind? After all, aren't the experiences you have accumulated consist an important part of who you are at the present moment?

 

[dodo]

That's a good point. In your hypothetical situation, does your actions upon other people, good or bad, or the mere knowlegde that others have of your being, magically disappear (just potentially changing the life of many people), or remain?

 

[Werg22]

I would say it is irrelevant, because all that counts here is your own perception of yourself and the world.

 

[octelcogopod]

Everything always changes, including ourselves.. I think on a fundamental level of thought you could say that you are never the same person in any instance of time, but seeing as people don't /change/ all that much from one instance to another, physically, using the word 'dead' usually implies something much more significant has happened to the person or the person has done.

I guess all change is actually equal(in the sense that the whole is no longer what it was the moment before), but we value that change differently personally, maybe even just a cell moving in our body has the same fundamental value as us getting hit by a car and getting severe wounds.
But if that's the case then we might as well just say "everything changes."

Hmm.