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The constant thing in life is change. Many of us believe that things are always changing around us. While things are changing, we ask, what makes that which has changed remained the same? The same, in the sense that we still recognize it.
Could it be that these things are not actually changing but we are being deceived by our sense of perception into believing that these things are actually changing?
In philosophy, theory of change and permanence is an interesting one. There are different views on what changes and what does not.
Without taken much of your time, i will like to go straight to the topic of the day!
I shall be using an ancient Greek philosopher, Heraclitus and Modern day German philosopher, John Locke to explain my view.
We are aware of the 'fact' that things turn to be something else after a while. Things and human beings become old. Our physical structures and some enzymes are renewed in our body system. Our physical body changes (wrinkles), our height, things on our bodies grow.
Despite of all these change going on in human life and things around man, something in us still remains and makes us that person we are. 'I am smyle', 'your are ehiboss' 'your are Mary' 'you are eurogee', etc,.
In philosophy, we call this personal identity. It is about the question of what remains the same or never changes despite all the physical changes we are observing.
Have you wondered what makes you recognize that your old friend of 30 years? Have asked yourself how come you can still recognize that neighbour you know 40 years back?
If how body system and physical structures change, what remains the same?
Ancient Greek philosophers like Thales, anaxemander, anaxemenes were concerned about 'ONE' thing that connects every other things. They were looking for the primal stuff from which everything was created. Thales said it was water, anaxemander said indefinite boundless realm or 'apeiron', and anaxemenes said air.
Later, Heraclitus, an ancient Greek philosopher explained the concept of change in his theory of flux. Heraclitus is known for his dictum: you cannot step into the same water twice because water is ever changing.
This idea might look strange especially when you ask: You mean i can't enter a river twice? Are you serious Heraclitus!
Well, you took his statement on the surface. If you step in a water, you remove your leg and step into the water again, the water you stepped on the first time is not the same you stepped on the second time because in the process of stepping in and out, the water flows backward and forward. So what you stepped on in the second time is another 'water' in the true sense of the word 'water'!
To explain his theory of flux, he claim that the primal stuff which everything was made is fire. Fire for him explains a proper change in the world. Things, for him, are always in opposite. Fire and water, cold and hot, man and woman, etc.
Despite this apparent opposite, there is one thing the unite them.
Let's look at his view on how fire truly explains change. If you cut a tree for instance, it is fresh. After few days, it becomes dry and looks different. For Heraclitus, you are still having a tree. Now, let's burn the tree. After burning it, it turns to charcoal. The charcoal for Heraclitus is still the tree (without the tree you cannot have that charcoal). Let's also burn the charcoal, it will turn to ashes. For him we are still having that tree.
So for Heraclitus, fire behaves in a way that it turns things to another thing but the thing in question never go out of existence. That is, despite the apparent changes, the tree remains a tree but only take a new form.
So for him, even if our physical structure changes, that which makes us who we are never changes.
For John Locke, there is something in us that makes us know that someone is Mary, Smyle, Glory, etc., and that is consciousness. Consciousness is the connector and the reason we are still aware of person 'A' as 'A'.
Locke believes in resurrection and the idea that soul is capable of leaving the human body after death to continue another existence. To explain his view about personal identity, he used an analogy of a prince and a cobbler. A price's soul enters into the body of a cobbler and rather than the cobbler to recognizes himself as a cobbler, the cobbler carries out the functions of a price and sees himself as the prince. Locke maintains that the prince's consciousness makes him aware of himself as the prince despite being in a different body.
The idea by Locke, perhaps, brought us to the 'abiku' (born to die spirit in the Yoruba mythological experience) where a child is born and dies after certain period. How does the Yorubas (a tribe in Nigeria) know that the person that died is the person that came back? There are cases where small kids reminded their mothers/fathers about things the mother/father did as babies.
To have a clearer picture of the 'abikus' (born to die spirit), the Yoruba people sometimes cut off parts of the child - finger (barbaric) to know when he/she comes back. The surprising thing is, there are cases where the mother gave birth to another baby and the exact part that was cut off on the baby that died would be missing on the new one! This looks strange but you can ask traditional Yoruba elders about the 'abikus (born to die spirits) to know more.
From Heraclitus view to that of John Locke, it is obvious that despite all the change we experience in life, there is something that remains the same and never changes.
There is no better way to accept the fact that there is permanence in change. That is, there is 'you' that makes you 'you' even after you moved from being a kid to an adult.
So while change is constant, there is permanence going on the process we call change and this explains why i will always recognize you as 'you' every time i see you even after 50 years!
Thanks for reading my work again!
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