Origo

A final thought on the matter of personal identity:

We discovered in our recent thought experiment that personal identity depends upon having a relationship with another person; no relationship, no identity. However, in our thought experiment we are human and mortal, just as we are in reality, and therefore we have a problem. If death terminates our relationships, and our identity depends upon those relationships, then our identity is only very temporary. If our identity winks out of existence when we die (or when everyone else does), then our so-called personal identity is really meaningless in the end. It appears that in order to have a meaningful personal identity, we must also have one or more relationships that perdure.