When looking at the main question at hand. Who is Harry Vladek likely to bring home from the hospital? Perry states many times throughout his essay that, Tommy will probably not be the one who survives the operation. Perry is not 100% certain of this, but he states many different concepts of identity and the mind, to help understand who should survive the operation and why. These concepts include identity and similarity, body transfers, brain identity, mind identity and memory theory.

The first main concept that Perry states is identity and similarity. He starts by stating the difference between identity and simi

Brain identity is another concept that Perry uses in his essay. He states that the brain is the part of our body that is responsible for mental life. The problem with this is, people are always interested in the mental or psychological attributes when dealing with people. Which is why everyone associates the brain with self-identity. People should ask themselves, why don't we base a person's self-identity on some other organ in the body like the liver or the heart. After all, people undergo liver transplants and even heart transplants, and when they get out of the hospital people still think they are the same people. Another way of looking at this is to take a car that has a blown engine. Lets say it a 98 Honda Civic and you put in a 97 Ford Escort engine into the body of the Honda. So now you are faced with the question of do you still have a Honda or do you have a Ford Escort. Most people will say that they still have a Honda Civic because that is what people

Parry also looks at the chance of both Tommy and Sam surviving the operation. This, however is not possible because, if Tommy who is one individual and Sam is the other are said to both be identical with the survivor who is a part of each of them. Then you are simply stating that Tommy and Sam are one identical person. Which is not the case.

Another way of looking at the concept is with a boat example. If you have a boat sitting in the water and every day you take one piece from your own boat, and start to construct another boat right beside yours. If you replace every piece of your boat, right after you take a piece off. Eventually you have two boats the exact same, only the one that contained the original pieces is now beside the new boat you just built. Now you are faced with the question of which boat is actually yours? Maybe they are both yours?

When this police officer try's to live the life of the bad guy, he goes through all the experiences of the bad guy, but does not know anyone who is talking to him. The police officer eventually tries to confront his wife with the face of the bad guy, and she calls the police and tries to kill him. This example shows that if Tommy were to receive Sam's brain, it would really work out as Sam getting Tommy's body. And it would also cause some very big problems for Tommy's friends, and Sam's self-identity.

When a person is growing up they go through different life experiences; these life experiences are what make them who they are. A person shapes their own self-identity or brain identity. Meaning to be the same person,

Some common words found in the essay are:
Tommy Sam, Socrates Parry, Harry Vladek, Tommy Vladek, Escort Vladek's, Vladek Tommy's, Frank Parry, Honda Civic, Maybe Mind, Ford Escort, brain identity, bad guy, survive operation, memory theory, tommy sam, tommy's body, survives operation, identity similarity, life experiences, honda civic, tommy survive operation, self-identity brain identity, memories mark mat, body completely destroyed,
Approximate Word count = 1718
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)