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essay2014

What Makes You You

Disciplines:
philosophy
science writing/popular science writing

Summary

Tim Urban's 2014 Wait But Why essay using thought experiments to explore personal identity — the Ship of Theseus problem applied to the self.

Core Contribution

Popular philosophy treatment of personal identity: Urban uses the teleporter thought experiment (a disassembler and reassembler — are you the same person?) and the gradual cell replacement fact (your atoms are replaced over years) to unsettle the reader's intuitive sense of a fixed self. Accessible entry point to serious philosophical questions (Parfit's Reasons and Persons, the bundle theory of self) for a mass audience. Demonstrated that long-form philosophical blog posts could reach millions.

Historical Influences

Derek Parfit Daniel Dennett

Intellectual Lineage

Popular Science Writing Philosophy of Mind

Allied Works

Reasons and Persons The Ego TunnelWait But Why

Contemporaries & Peers

Reasons and Persons Consciousness Explained

Minds Influenced

Long-Form Blog WritingPopular Philosophy

Intellectual Posterity

Popular Philosophy Long-Form Blogging

Discussing

What Makes You You

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