So… what makes a person?
Coach Kevin takes a look at if you really can become a completely new person.
Get-Fit Guy is hosted by Kevin Don. A transcript is available at Simplecast.
Have a fitness question? Email Kevin at getfitguy@quickanddirtytips.com or leave us a voicemail at (510) 353-3014.
Find Get-Fit Guy on Facebook and Twitter, or subscribe to the newsletter for more fitness tips.
Get-Fit Guy is a part of Quick and Dirty Tips.
Links:
https://www.quickanddirtytips.com
https://www.facebook.com/GetFitGuy
https://twitter.com/GetFitGuy
https://www.kevindon.com/
Welcome back to Get-Fit Guy! I am a firm believer in the idea that the most important and meaningful thing I can do with this podcast is to give you all tools. Tools with which you’ll be able to critically think about fitness advice you are reading about or listening to or seeing. Since we are all on an unstoppable ride into entropy where even the universe will fall into a dark, cold featureless state… at some point in time I will no longer be the Get-Fit Guy. So what then? Well, hopefully then you can use the tools I have shared to analyze and assess fitness information and make informed, well-placed choices.
If I came on here every week and gave “definitive” answers (of which there are none) then it wouldn’t be of long-term use, only short-term. So this week I am going to give you an insight into how my mind works and see if you agree. I’d love to hear everyone’s ideas. So make sure to email me at getfitguy@quickanddirtytips.com. And while I’m on that topic, I’m all for discourse, but a message that just says “BS” in response to an episode doesn’t really bring anything to the conversation. But thanks Marc for the message.
So, a few days ago, as I was doom scrolling the Instagrams, I came across a video from a fitness “influencer” which said: “You’re only ever a few months away from being a completely different person.” Now, of course, I know what he is TRYING to say here: come to my gym or buy my program and a whole new aesthetic awaits you. But… that’s not what is being said. A few months away from being a completely different person. Sounds like something fun to dig into.
So…what makes a person? Well, according to various sources, a person is any entity with the moral right of self-determination and a personal identity. Now, this idea of personal identity is an old one and the subject of many a thought experiment. Here’s an idea for you: You are on trial for murder and your defense? You are NOT the murderer because the murderer was a different person. Yes, the murderer is right-handed, like you, and yes, the murderer has the same fingerprints as you. They even look like you and you have no identical twin out there. But the murderer is not the same person as you because you have changed. That person liked Bob Dylan, you like AC/DC. That person has tonsils and an appendix, you have had yours removed. That person was 30 and you are 40. So you cannot possibly be found guilty because that crime was committed by someone else.
It’s pretty obvious that no incorruptible court of law would accept this argument. But at the same time… why not? Well, to find out and to analyze if we are really able to become a completely different person in a few months, let's look at some ways we can establish personal identity, or identity in general. The first is what we call qualitative identity. So in the case of a murder by stabbing… we can take a drawer full of knives. They are qualitatively the same in that they are all knives. If I bent one knife, it would become qualitatively different but it's still a knife. The actual murder weapon would be numerically the same… it’s the only singular knife that had the experience of stabbing someone. It’s numerically identical in the same way that 2+2 is the same as 4. It’s one and the same. How does this carry over to humans? Well, you are numerically the same from birth until now. You may be missing an appendix and have grown a beard, but those are only qualitative differences. Numerically you are the same because if we had filmed every moment of your life from birth until now, Truman Show style, at no point were you replaced by another person. You are qualitatively different but you are numerically the same. So the first point in establishing if you can change completely is: if you lost 40 lbs and got a six-pack, would you have been replaced by a new person or only have changed in some quality? The answer is clear.
This is called spatiotemporal continuity. But we can look even further into this in order to make sure it applies in all circumstances. Let's take the case of an ice cube which we place into a glass of water. The ice cube melts and mixes with the water, so now the water contains the ice cube, but the water is not the ice cube. It has changed and so it’s clear we need a further distinction. The ice cube is only numerically identical if there is spatiotemporal continuity which maintains form. Later ice cubes in a series of snapshots are water, not ice cubes.
This leads us to a thought experiment by 17th-century British philosopher John Locke. It’s known as the Prince and the Cobbler. A certain prince wonders what it would be like to live as a lowly cobbler. And reciprocally a cobbler is daydreaming of life as a prince. One day, the psychologies of both are swapped. The body of the prince comes to have all the memories, knowledge, and idiosyncrasies of the cobbler, whose psychology has in turn departed for the body of the cobbler. After the swap, the person in the cobbler's body remembers being a prince. He regards himself as the prince in every way except in body. And the cobbler regards himself as the cobbler in every way but body. Are they right? Spatiotemporal continuity says they are wrong because we can trace the bodies back in an unbroken line to birth with no changes.
So, Locke’s view is that memory makes personal identity. The theory of psychological continuity. This view was challenged by 20th Century philosopher Bernard Williams, who proposed the argument that lets us suppose that now, in 2023, a man suffers a psychological condition that leads him to believe he is Guy Fawkes, who was hanged in 1606 for the plot to blow up the English parliament. He seems to have all of the psychology we know of Guy Fawkes. So, according to Locke’s theory, the man IS Guy Fawkes. But the curveball is that the same condition occurs to another man. So, if personal identity is psychological continuity, we have a problem because if a=y and b=y, we can collide that a=b. But it's absurd to say the two men are equal in terms of personal identity. So, Williams chose spatiotemporal continuity over psychological continuity because it avoids a problem known as duplication.
Now, as usual, I only have 10-12 minutes, so digging super deep into the philosophy of self isn't possible. But useful to create discourse on the idea. So, what do you think? Can you really create a whole new you in a few weeks or months? Or have you only altered quality?
And….after that light piece of thinking, it’s over to the emails where Heather from Baltimore writes:
“I have been listening to the Get Fit Guy podcast since the beginning and you are my favorite host. Your mission of helping people work out effectively and safely is evident and your sincerity shines through. Thank you!
A few months ago, I started strength training. I do three sets of 10-15 reps and once I feel this is not challenging anymore, I add a little more weight. The last time I added 3 lbs to my arm weights (I am not very strong), there was a noticeable difference in how my arms responded. My left side really struggled with the new weight—much more than my right side. There was no pain or discomfort, I believe it is ability-based. (I am right-handed.) My question is, how do I work with this? I have heard that symmetry is important. What should my workouts look like? Should I keep the weight the same for both sides, but do more reps on my left to build strength? Do I add a bit less weight on the right side until my left side catches up?
Hi Heather—thank you for the kind words and for being a long-time listener! That’s cool.
So, it’s pretty common, if not actually the case in everyone, that we have what is called the bilateral deficit. That is: a difference between left and right, front and rear, and so on. This is why I’m a big fan of dumbbells and kettlebells for accessory work to help close the deficit. Barbells are king for static strength development, but won't do a terribly good job of “evening” you out. I would recommend choosing a weight you can do for 8-10 reps on your weaker arm and do that arm first. Then perform the same number of reps on your “stronger” arm at the same load. This will actually trigger a training phenomenon called contralateral strength training that helps your weaker side get stronger faster because your body wants to balance things out and reapportions nerve stimulation. (1)
Do this for a few weeks and you might just have a brand new you!
(1) https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17043329/#:~:text=Abstract,usually%20measured%20in%20homologous%20muscles.