Arrested Development and Philosophy_ They've Made a Huge Mistake - Kristopher G. Phillips [59]
10. For example, Ann Ferguson, Mary Vetterling-Braggin, Mary Ann Warren, Andrea Dworkin, Carol Gould, Marilyn Freidman, and James Sterba, to name a few.
Chapter 11
I’M OSCAR.COM
The Problem(s) of Personal Identity in Arrested Development
Kristopher Phillips
“Unfortunately for Oscar, ‘you’ve got the wrong twin’ was a common alibi” (“The Cabin Show”). Poor Oscar, nobody believes him. And why should they? Oscar looks just like George Sr., especially after George shaves Oscar’s head. They’re identical twins, after all. But this raises a host of important philosophical questions about the nature of personal identity—what makes Oscar himself and not George? What makes Oscar the same person from one moment to the next? What evidence do we have to help us tell the difference between Oscar and George?
There are a few different kinds of issues that philosophers raise about identity. Indeed what is often called “the problem of personal identity” is not one problem, but many. The first of the problems concerns what actually makes Oscar who he is and not somebody else (George Sr., for example). We’ll call this the metaphysical question. The second problem concerns persistence: What does it take to make Oscar the same person from one moment to the next? And the third problem concerns evidence: How do we know who is who? As we’ll see, Arrested Development teaches us the most about the first kind of problem, but it also offers some insights into the problems of persistence and evidence.
Bland (I mean, Ann), Marta, the Richters, Aristotle, and the Metaphysical Question
As we all know, Michael is no fan of his son’s girlfriend, Ann. Ann is essentially a bore. She and her family hold their parties on Bethlehem time and engage in hours upon hours of silent prayer. Ann is not the most beautiful woman in the world, nor is she ugly . . . she’s just bland. In fact, Ann was played by two different actresses, and the transition from one to the next was nearly seamless. I guess that’s what happens when your most defining feature is that you lack any defining features (I mean, under her school picture, it said “not pictured”). But Ann is not alone in her replaceability; indeed she is not the only character who was played by multiple actresses. Marta, Gob’s on again, off again girlfriend, is herself portrayed by a pair of actresses. Michael, though, is a big fan of Marta. Marta is essentially everything that Michael could want in a woman (for himself or for his son): She’s attractive, family oriented, charming, and successful. Despite the fundamental differences between Marta and Ann, both characters are seamlessly played by two different actresses. How could this work out so well? In answer to this question, we can appeal to the philosophical and scientific works of Aristotle (384–322 BCE).
According to Aristotle, each species has some specifically defining feature or set of features that make it what it is rather than some other species.1 He famously held that a “[hu]man is a rational animal.” This was what Aristotle took to be the essential characteristic that belongs to all and only humans. This isn’t to say that all humans are essentially and totally the same, for that’s obviously false. Rather, Aristotle says that all humans share this characteristic, and this explains why they’re all so similar, as well as what’s unique about them. (Aristotle also defines the human being as a featherless biped—but this doesn’t capture what’s unique about human beings). If something lacks the unique characteristic that makes us different from the other featherless bipeds (namely rationality), then it’s not a human.
But this alone doesn’t explain how two women could so easily be one character. Yes, both women are featherless bipeds, and both have the rational capacity Aristotle argues is unique to human beings.