The Legend of Zelda and Philosophy_ I Link Therefore I Am - Luke Cuddy [40]
This question might be answered by appeals to theories in the philosophy of language. In this chapter, however, I’m going to come at it differently. Given the metaphysical constraints of the Zeldac universe, how can the identity of the characters possibly persist through time?
Numerical Identity: The people believed that the Hero of Time would again come to save them
Imagine that Link encounters two Boko Babas planted firmly right next to one another. They have no apparent differences. The baddies may be exactly similar, but they are not numerically identical. A thing is numerically identical only to itself. One thing is numerically identical to another if and only if they share all the same properties. The beasties might seem to have all the same properties. They both have long, spiky stems and resemble Venus flytraps. They both leave a cluster of nuts behind for Link to use in his slingshot when they are killed. But they are not identical because each whatever it is called has properties that the other does not. Each Boko Baba has the property of taking up a particular place in space and time.
The concept of numerical identity raises problems for personal identity. A little twist on a classic example will help to illustrate this point. Imagine the following case. Tetra’s (aka Zelda’s) ship leaves on a voyage from one side of the ocean to another. A little while after setting off, a nail falls out of one of the floorboards on deck and sinks to the bottom of the ocean. Tetra quickly puts one of her fellow pirates on the task of replacing the missing nail. No harm is done, and they continue along on their journey. After they travel for a few more miles, another piece of the ship falls off and sinks to bottom of the ocean. It is replaced and the crew continues their trip. This keeps happening for the duration of the excursion until every part of the ship has sunk the bottom of the ocean and been replaced with a new part.
Now imagine that villainous Ganon is stewing up an evil plot. He determines that in order to carry off his wicked scheme, he needs a ship just like Tetra’s. He summons the various pieces of Tetra’s ship from the bottom of the ocean and puts them back together to form an entire ship. Link, in his quest to rid the world of evil, must find Tetra’s true ship. Which one should he choose? Is the ship that Tetra finishes the voyage with the true ship or is the ship with all the original pieces pulled together from the bottom of the ocean the true ship? It’s possible that we don’t even need to imagine a case where the ship falls apart. The ship when it travels two miles may fail to be numerically identical to the ship that has only traveled one mile because it no longer occupies the same place in time. On the basis of this we must either conclude that neither of the two ships are the true ship of Tetra or we must pick one and identify the essential characteristic or set of characteristics that makes one of them the same as the ship that it was when it started out.
If we opt for the first solution to the problem, we can’t think of characters in the game as the same people over time. If we take the second approach, we must identify the necessary and sufficient conditions required for the essential characteristic or set of characteristics which make it the same. Necessary conditions are conditions which, taken together guarantee that a thing is of a particular kind. For example, if Link’s quest is to find the Triforce, the collection of each piece is a necessary condition for the whole Triforce. A sufficient condition is one which, if met, guarantees that a thing is of a particular kind. For example if Link found the whole Triforce already united, this would be sufficient for finding the Triforce.
Physical Continuity