Dialogue on Personal Identity and Immortality (review)

The problem of personal identity, i.e. the question of what a person's being a person is based on, is one of the problems with a long history in philosophy and theology. The most important topic in the debates about personal identity is the criteria based on which a person remains the same person over time and is different from others. Personal identity is related to issues such as soul-body relation, memory, the whatness of "I", evidence of identity recognition, and even human population. It goes without saying that the personal identity is one of the topics that can have a special relevance in the survival of the soul and immortality. In his book Dialogue on Personal Identity and Immortality (1978), John Perry tries to present various philosophical positions and views on personal identity and immortality in the form of a three-person conversation between three fictional characters. In this book, various issues such as survival after death, the role of memory in personal identity, and the relationship of the body with the soul have been discussed from different perspectives. In this article, we will first introduce John Perry and his works. Then we examine the content of the book and the weaknesses of the arguments. At the end, we will have a look at the general quality of the Persian translation of the book (translated by Kaveh Lajevardi, published by Markaz Publications) and suggest what we think are better translations for some of the sentences.