136. Trenton Merricks | Self and Identity

If you'd like to support the series and get early access (plus other perks), you can join on Patreon or become a paid Substack subscriber:   / friction   https://fric.substack.com/subscribe My links: https://linktr.ee/frictionphilosophy. Trenton Merricks is Commonwealth Professor of Philosophy at the University of Virginia, and his work focuses primarily on metaphysics, but also religion, epistemology, language and mind. In this interview, we discuss his book, "Self and Identity". 00:00 - Preview 00:33 - Introduction 01:17 - Self and Identity 04:58 - What and why questions 07:58 - Semantics 13:02 - Normative issues 14:02 - What matters in survival 19:09 - Numerical identity 21:37 - More conditions? 23:15 - The past 25:08 - Permanent comatose 31:22 - Memory wipe 36:38 - Psychological continuity 37:58 - Puzzles of identity 41:20 - Persistence and eternalism 47:16 - Relative identity 54:15 - Sci-fi cases 58:50 - Other views 1:00:57 - Non-reductionism 1:06:12 - Examples 1:11:28 - Vagueness 1:15:10 - Narrative accounts 1:19:05 - Christian theology 1:25:36 - A puzzle 1:28:05 - Value of philosophy 1:29:58 - Conclusion