Would it be egoistically rational for you to take treatment

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Reference no: EM133875048

Thought Experiment: The Cure

"Imagine that you are twenty years old and are diagnosed with a disease that, if untreated, invariably causes death (though not pain or disability) within five years. There is a treatment that reliably cures the disease but also, as a side effect, causes total retrograde amnesia and radical personality change. Long-term studies of others who have had the treatment show that they almost always go on to have long and happy lives, though these lives are informed by desires and values that differ profoundly from those that the person had prior to treatment. You can therefore reasonably expect that, if you take the treatment, you will live for roughly sixty more years, though the life you will have will be utterly discontinuous with your life as it has been. You will remember nothing of your past and your character and values will be radically altered. Suppose, however, that this can be reliably predicted: that the future you would have between the ages of twenty and eighty if you were to take the treatment would, by itself, be better, as a whole, than your entire life will be if you do not take the treatment.

"Would it be egoistically rational for you to take the treatment? Most of us would at least be skeptical of the wisdom of taking the treatment and many would be deeply opposed to it."

(from The Ethics of Killing by Jeff McMahan)

Choose one thought experiment, and explain it. List and explain each factor relevant to personal identity that this thought experiment controls for and focuses on. What theory of personal identity does this thought experiment seem designed to provide intuitive evidence in support of: the physical theory of personal identity, or the psychological theory?

Now evaluate this thought experiment. Do you think it offers good evidence for the personal identity theory it is designed to support? Why or why not? Are there misleading aspects of this thought experiment that distort our intuitions? Be sure to fully explain and defend your stance.

Reference no: EM133875048

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