Love and Change: Experimental Philosophy of Personal Identity and Relational Obligations

Name: Love and Change: Experimental Philosophy of Personal Identity and Relational Obligations
Start: 2026-02-10T17:30:00+00:00
Location: Wolfson College, Barton Road, CB3 9BB Cambridge, United Kingdom

Schedule

Tue, 10 Feb, 2026 at 05:30 pm

UTC+00:00

Location

Wolfson College, Barton Road, CB3 9BB Cambridge, United Kingdom | Cambridge, EN

In this talk, we will explore how different kinds of personal change affect intuitive judgments about personal identity, relational obligations, and love. Previous research in philosophy and moral psychology suggests that mental properties – especially moral character – are considered more central to who one is than physical qualities, which are often seen as more peripheral. Losing a central property is viewed as more disruptive to personal identity. For example, if someone who was once kind becomes cruel, we may be inclined to say that they are no longer the same person. Such changes may also affect the extent to which we are willing to keep promises made before the transformation, including marital and other personal commitments. Moreover, philosophers have long debated what it means to really love. Many argue that love must persist even if the beloved’s properties change over time. But which properties may change and which must remain constant, for love to be considered real? When love fades after personal change, does this mean the love was never there in the first place, or that the beloved person no longer exists?

Speaker
Dr Elzė Sigutė Mikalonytė is a Research Fellow at the Centre for Biomedical Ethics, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore. Previously, she was a Research Associate in the Department of Psychology and a Junior Research Fellow at Wolfson College, University of Cambridge. She serves as a steering committee member of the European Network for Philosophy of Music, a board member of the Lithuanian Philosophical Association, and is part of the editorial team at the journal Experimental Philosophy. Her research interests are in aesthetics, metaphysics, moral psychology, and experimental philosophy.

Details
This event is open to all and free to attend with no need to book.
This is a hybrid event, which will take place in-person in the Gatsby Room (Chancellor's Centre) and also on Zoom.
If you would like to attend online, please register for the Zoom link: https://wolfson-cam-ac-uk.zoom.us/meeting/register/pYiTRVd6RUOmcrgoC2w_BQ#/registration
Refreshments will be available for the in-person audience.

Access
This event will take place in the Gatsby Room on the first floor of the Chancellor's Centre. It has step-free access with a lift and there is an accessible toilet located each floor of the building.

Contact
If you have any questions, please contact our events team - [email protected]

Wolfson Humanities Society
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