Parfit’s Teletransporter Paradox

Philosophics — Philosophical and Political Ramblings · Mar 13, 2026 · 22m

Language philosopher Bry Willis critiques Derek Parfit’s teletransporter thought experiment by arguing that the perceived metaphysical paradox of personal identity is actually an illusion. The author asserts that the mystery vanishes when we stop viewing the self as a permanent, physical substance and instead recognise it as a scale-dependent heuristic. According to this perspective, identity is merely a functional tool used to track organised continuity for practical purposes like law or memory. Whether a person survives teleportation is not a deep metaphysical fact but rather a policy…