In this episode Kira and Jill discuss personal identity and sense of self as presented in the Dragon Age games. From Anders and Justice, to Flemith and Mythal to Cole’s transformation from spirit-like to human-like, questions regarding identity are peppered throughout these games. Over and over in the games we are invited to ask what makes someone the person that they are, and what makes someone the same person over time, regardless of how many different bodies they may or may not be occupying. Using philosophical theories and concepts from Rene Descartes, John Locke, Hilde Lindemann, Susan Brison and Derek Parfit, Kira and Jill examine what the Dragon Age games have to say about personal identity.
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References:
Brison, Susan (1996) “Outliving Oneself: Trauma, Memory and Personal Identity” (in Feminists Rethink the Self (Feminist Theory and Politics Series,) Diana T. Meyers ed.) Westview Press.
Bostrom, N. (2005) “A History of Transhumanist Thought” Journal of Evolution and Technology. 14 (1).
Descartes, Rene (2008) Meditations on First Philosophy (M. Moriarty, trans.). Oxford University Press
Lindemann, Hilde ((2014) Holding On and Letting Go: The Social Practice of Personal Identities, Oxford University Press
Locke, John, and P.H. Nidditch (1979) An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, Clarendon Press.
Parfit, Derek (1987) Reasons and Persons, Clarendon Press
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