By combining philosophical knowledge with qualitative research in psychology, the project will explore new cross-disciplinary ways to approach an aspect of the problem of personal identity, namely the distinctive uniqueness and irreplaceability of each individual person.

That in general we have no problem recognizing the same person across life changes suggests some kind of intuitive dualism, a sort of grasp of an individual person-essence or soul, which remains the same in spite of the modifications gone through.

Our project will explore ways to tackle a complementary issue of our grasp of personal identity, which we may express with a pair of questions:

Is there any distinct perception of the uniqueness of each person when all other features, bodily and mental, are indistinguishable? That is, would it matter to us if the individual person we relate to is replaced, even though physical traits, memories, gestures, character, etc., remain the same?

By carrying out a qualitative study our purpose is to study the perception or awareness of this uniqueness in young adults, based on the assumption that we have a natural insight into the irreplaceable character of persons and their non-fungibility.