tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8310450667755637519.post5776719328655776249..comments2023-10-14T09:40:06.690-05:00Comments on Jean Kazez: Was I once an egg?Jean Kazezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00592593002719828153noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8310450667755637519.post-25406501552963859632013-04-26T13:41:39.401-05:002013-04-26T13:41:39.401-05:00I share Craig Urias's frustration with the con...I share Craig Urias's frustration with the concept of an entity as anything more than an envelope of convenience which we use to demarcate some subset of our experience. <br /><br />Fertilization may or may not be a useful point of demarcation so long as we discount the possibility of parthenogenesis, but any useful concept of identity for living organisms should surely be capable of Alan Cooperhttp://qpr.ca/blognoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8310450667755637519.post-1387558167630670522013-04-25T22:24:33.696-05:002013-04-25T22:24:33.696-05:00As a matter of terminology I wouldn't argue th...As a matter of terminology I wouldn't argue that the placenta is part of the fetus. The placenta is part of the placenta-fetus-entity, the thing that used to be a zygote.<br /><br />I was about to compare the placenta to a fingernail which eventually gets "cut", but that's not a good analogy because (among other reasons) fingernails don't contain genetic material. Another Craig Uriashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03390058922234703660noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8310450667755637519.post-8077154343981100922013-04-25T21:08:13.416-05:002013-04-25T21:08:13.416-05:00Hmm....
.If A is the source of two separate enti...Hmm....<br /><br />.If A is the source of two separate entities, B and C (neither a part of the other), then it can't be that A=B or A=C. My whole body and my left arm aren't separate, so this principle doesn't tell us anything about whether a zygote is identical to one or the other. Now, you can also avoid applying the principle to the case of the zygote, my whole body, and the Jean Kazezhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06297159994901018071noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8310450667755637519.post-86775775539289281962013-04-25T20:41:50.120-05:002013-04-25T20:41:50.120-05:00I don't follow the "logic of identity&quo...I don't follow the "logic of identity" step. The zygote contains the makings of my left arm, too. Is my left arm me? No, not in the way that we conventionally understand "me" and "arm", even considering the vast fuzziness in the term "me". My arm is surely <em>part of me</em>, though.<br /><br />So what is wrong with my placenta also being part of me? ICraig Uriashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03390058922234703660noreply@blogger.com