what makes a person a person?

[microxone]

would it be possible to recreate yourself in the future if you die? I know the brain is made out of cells and electricity. the dna makes up who you are (hair color, eye color, skin color, etc). If we were to create the brain, and stick the brain inside a human with the same dna as the brain, would that be you? if you can indeed be revived, if we do the same process and do that with another person, would that person be you still? if both persons are you, do you control both people? What limits the control that you have? siamese twins share the same body but one of each siamese twin control a part of their body, they don't control all their body.

[Chad32]

There are a lot of things that go into what a person becomes, including initial personality, life experiences, and genetics. I'm sure there are other people in the world that are very similar to me, but it would be almost impossible to make someone exactly like me.

[Captain Colostomy]

Taint nobody like me. I'm uneek.

Bank.

[Doubting Thomas]

What makes a person a person? Usually that person's parents.

rimshot

[pineapplebunnybounce]

If you recreated the brain instead of using the original brain, then it's not the same person.

[paulpablo]

would it be possible to recreate yourself in the future if you die? I know the brain is made out of cells and electricity. the dna makes up who you are (hair color, eye color, skin color, etc). If we were to create the brain, and stick the brain inside a human with the same dna as the brain, would that be you? if you can indeed be revived, if we do the same process and do that with another person, would that person be you still? if both persons are you, do you control both people? What limits the control that you have? siamese twins share the same body but one of each siamese twin control a part of their body, they don't control all their body.

Yeh it's a good question, if someone recreated you after you die exactly the same would it be you. It doesn't work that way in twins does it? When the egg splits.

[downbeatplumb]

What makes a person a person is a big question and I am unaware of a satisfactory answer as of yet.
Turing came up with the Turing test for intelligence which, if taken to a logical conclusion, could include personhood.
But the Turing test can be gamed with clever programming so something new needs to be worked out.

Dolphins, Elephants and some great apes are self aware and can react in a very person like way, can they count as a person? (as distinct from a human which is just a species label).

[Chad32]

Animals have different personalities too, so I guess they could be considered people. Or at least individuals.

[Angrboda]

The July/August 2013 issue of Philosophy Now included a number of articles on the self. You could start there with Chris Durante's article. (Amazon.com is probably the best place to buy Philosophy Now issues and subscriptions, though it's also available from Zinio magazines, on Android.)

http://philosophynow.org/issues/97

[microxone]

twins share the same dna, but twins themselves don't have the same identitical dna. when the egg splits, it means one dna is splitted into 2 dna. it's like cutting an apple in half.

we do have chimeras though which basically is 2 sets of dna inside one person and that one person have full control of his/her body.

but of course, we can take into account of asexual reproduction which is exactly what I think to recreate the self. any bacteria have the same dna, but is the 2nd bacteria the 1st bacteria? no. the brain is billions of cells and more complex than the bacteria so it make might a different. there is cloning lambs too. i would assume both people with the same exact dna will not share the same memory. memory is stored on the brain. the clone will not have that memory because the brain doesn't have the memory since memory is just cells. the next question would be "would it be possible to transfer memory from one person to an another if memory is just cells"?

would it be possible to recreate yourself in the future if you die? I know the brain is made out of cells and electricity. the dna makes up who you are (hair color, eye color, skin color, etc). If we were to create the brain, and stick the brain inside a human with the same dna as the brain, would that be you? if you can indeed be revived, if we do the same process and do that with another person, would that person be you still? if both persons are you, do you control both people? What limits the control that you have? siamese twins share the same body but one of each siamese twin control a part of their body, they don't control all their body.

Yeh it's a good question, if someone recreated you after you die exactly the same would it be you. It doesn't work that way in twins does it? When the egg splits.