Memory Without Shelter: Cloning, Memory Transfer, and Why Psychological Continuity Is Not Enough
Memory Without Shelter examines one of the central questions in contemporary philosophy of personal identity: is psychological continuity sufficient for the persistence of a person? Building upon Derek Parfit's Relation R and the neo-Lockean tradition, the paper develops a thought experiment involving the transfer of a complete psychological profile to a biologically mature clone without prior experiential history. The article argues that preserving memories, beliefs and psychological dispositions is not sufficient to preserve the person. It proposes Historical Constitutivism as an alternative account, according to which personal identity depends upon the irreducible integration of psychological states, first-person consciousness and causal-historical trajectory. This work is part of the broader philosophical research project Foundations of Constitutive Ontology. Author:Eduardo Patriota Project:Foundations of Constitutive Ontology https://www.eduardopatriota.com.br/foundations/
Authors
- Eduardo Patriota (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0002-2990-8453)
Institutions
- Teach Democracy (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
- Published
- 2026-08-03
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21764984
- Primary Topic
- Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy
- Type
- preprint