Theos-Talk Archives (December 1996 Message tl00738)

Tom wrote:

>That there is nothing which does not constantly change means that there is
>nothing which has any duration. Since, at any two instants, any given
>object is something different, what it was at any given instant in the past
>does not exist anymore. But since there is a relationship in time in how
>the past causes the future, there is continuity between the past and the
>future. Change only occurs gradually. Just as all human beings have some
>things in common but are unique, so does what is known as a certain
>individual have much in common with what was known as that individual in
>the past, but cannot be the identical individual. The difference between
>the "you" of the past and the "you" of the present and the difference
>between the "you" of now and the "me" of now is only one of degree, not
>of kind.  Neither the "you" of the past nor the "me" of now are the "you"
>of the present.

Huh?

Aren't you Tom Robertson?

Won't you be you from birth to death (at least)?

Should we not send birthday presents?

Look closer at what you describe as "the relationship in time of how the
past causes the future", and what is "common", "continuous" and "unique"
about a person (to use your words). There is a structural integity to
any given object in the pattern that it develops along (i.e. a rose bud
is a rose is a wilting rose, etc.), that includes the progression that
we call growth, life cycle, etc. In that their is identity and
individuality (at least for the time), despite the changes, no?

In man there is a subject of consciousness as well as the objective
experience. As a person, we identify both as the "one who grows and
changes" and as the "one who subjectively experiences these". Or do you
disagree?

Subjectivity (as personal human ego consciousness) is itself a pattern
that also grows, develops and changes, yet has structural integrity.

Then there is the even a deeper wonder in the causes of the word "I" and
the silence that precedes and follows it.

Mark but not really Mark
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