The tale parfit tells: Analytic metaphysics of personal identity VS. Wittgensteinian film and literature

Abstract

At the center of Derek Parfit's Reasons and Persons is nestleda famous short story about a person who uses a teletransporter. Parfitargues that his "thought experiment" shows that "personal identity"-as(analytic) philosophy understands it-doesn't matter. As long as I knowthat my "self" on Mars is unharmed by the teletransporter, it shouldn'tmatter to me that I remain on Earth, soon to die. I use ChristopherPriest's novel The Prestige and the Nolan brothers' film of it to challengethe method and alleged moral of this "branch-line" teletransportationthought experiment, treating it as a work of literature in miniature.