Meta Treks is a Trek.fm podcast dedicated to a deep examination of the philosophical ideas found in Star Trek. In each episode, Zachary Fruhling and Mike Morrison take you on a fascinating journey into the inner workings of Star Trek storytelling, deeper into subspace than you've ever traveled before.
http://trek.fm/meta-treks
5: Rocking the Goatee
Personal Identity.
As characters in Star Trek change over time (think TV Picard versus
Movie Picard), what accounts for the persistence of those
characters' personal identity?
In this episode of Meta Treks, the continuation of a
two-part discussion on the problem of identity in Star Trek, hosts
Zachary Fruhling and Mike Morrison consider various responses to
the problem of personal identity, including John Locke's views on
memory and the continuity of consciousness, David Hume's bundle
theory of the self, and Rene Descartes's views on mind-body dualism
and personal identity.
Zachary and Mike close out their discussion of personal identity by
considering identity issues in alternate timelines, counterfactual
scenarios, and the Mirror Universe. Can David Lewis's possible
worlds interpretation of counterfactuals, along with Saul Kripke's
account of personal names as rigid designators, explain the
identity of Star Trek characters across alternate timelines? Is it
possible to give any account of why Star Trek characters are
somehow connected to their Mirror Universe counterparts? Join
Zachary and Mike as they wrestle with these issues in personal
identity and more, all told through examples taken directly from
the Star Trek universe.
Chapters
Welcome to Episode 5 (00:01:06)
Introducing the Topic (00:02:23)
Examples of Personal Identity in Star Trek (00:10:40)
Numerical Identity (00:12:56)
Continuity of Consciousness (00:17:57)
The Bundle Theory (00:26:50)
Dualism (00:34:09)
Alternate Universes (00:52:56)
Names as Rigid Designators (01:00:46)
Final Thoughts (01:11:21)
Production
Dennis Castello (Editor and Producer) Norman C. Lao (Executive Producer) C Bryan Jones (Executive Producer) Matthew Rushing (Executive Producer) Charlynn Schmiedt (Executive Producer) Will Nguyen (Content Manager) Richard Marquez (Production Manager)