Memory, Identity, And Body In a hypothetical situation, Barack Obama and Miley Cyrus are both involved in a horrific accident. As a result they are both horribly injured and only one can live. They undergo an operation wherein the parts of the brain that support specific episodic memories, but only those specific parts, are transferred. The body of Miley is given the brain pieces of Obama and the body of Barack Obama is given the brain pieces of Miley. The person who is now in Miley Cyrus's body awakens and the doctor states that Miley has survived. While the body is now that of Miley Cyrus as well some would say is the soul, the memories she has, memories which shape personality; are those of Barack Obama. The doctor makes this supposition only because of how Miley looks, but does not consider the impact of the inclusion of a brain which functions very differently from her own as well as the inclusion of memories which are very different from the type society associates with a person like Miley. However, he does take into account the amount of brain left that is controlled by Miley Cyrus. Obviously, it is a complicated hypothesis. Philosophers Locke, Sacks, and Williams would argue the point with some arguing one way and some the other.

The doctor's opinion of the situation is that the body and potentially the ethereal soul if he is a spiritual or religious man is still inside the physical being and therefore the person is Miley Cyrus. The philosopher John Locke might disagree with him. According to John Locke's memory criterion would suggest that the body of Miley Cyrus should now be considered to be Barack Obama. The criterion, which is often expressed as "(M) A= B if and only if A can, at least in principle, remember thinking, doing, or experiencing something thought, or done, or experienced by B" (Nimbalkar 268). Consciousness is the most important component in determining identity. A person's life is defined...

Each experience contributes to his or her personality and to their future actions. In this case, the brain's consciousness determines identity and, when able to speak, the body of Miley Cyrus will be most likely to sit up and self-identify as Barack Obama, according to Locke's criterion. He does not believe that the body is integral to identity. Further, he believes that the soul within a body can be transferred along with consciousness. Once a new consciousness takes over the body, the soul modifies itself to match this new identity. "If the same Substance which thinks be changed, it can be the same person, or remaining the same, it can be a different person" (Locke 272). The mind of the person is all that matters according to Locke's theorem. Since, in this case, the mind's conscious parts and the ones that control all the person's unique memories belong to Barack Obama; this person is now Obama and not Miley Cyrus.
Philosopher Oliver Sacks famously asked "What sore of a life (if any), what sort of a world, what sort of a self, can be preserved in a man who has lost the greater part of his memory and, with this, his past, and his moorings in time?" (23). In Sacks's opinion, a man is essentially his memory. This is called the "memory view theory." According to this theory, a person's life is what he believes it to be. An example is a case of a man who had been involved in World War II and had then incurred brain damage. When he awoke, he believed the year was 1945 and that he was still only 19 years old even though this was far from the truth. The reality of the world at the time was irrelevant to this man. For him, he was 19 and it was 1945. Nothing that doctors or psychologists or family members or friends could alter the man's sense of reality. He had no memory of them from…