In a way, yes. How different depends. While memories do shape us, our genetics and chemical makeup are a certain base that our memories rest in. So if we forget, we change what we have built ourselves to be, but retain the core of what we are.

Yes... I think, however, that it depends on what the memory was and it's significance to you, which ironically you cannot do, because you forgot it :lol:

What I mean is, not every memory is the same in terms of the impact it had in defining you as a person and what impact this can cause in the future. The memory could mean that future situations, be there moral or social et cetera, are approached and handled differently by yourself had you retained the memory. Again, this is dependent on the memory in question.
'Incorrect recall' can occur for many different reasons which can lead to different choices being made. One example is a couple having a child whom they obviously love but, as children do, brings a host of problems such as financial and time constraints, lack of sleep et cetera which nearly breaks them. But when the child is a little older, most of this fades from memory and hopefully, only positive memories are left. At this point the couple may choose to have another child only to realise once it was done that they hated it the first time round and this time, it may actually cause the relationship to break.

This is a very basic example, and is only about incorrect recall, not a forgotten memory, but the point is the same.

It is important to remember that, In my opinion at least, memories are what shape us and are a useful tool to protect ourselves and others. To know that we are nothing more than memories, one only need ponder the question "who am I?" and all the answers you can possibly come up with will be a memory of something you have done, or a situation you have been in...

It's imo useful to take some care up front to think about what a memory is. Recognizing that "memory" is just a descriptive term for the content of certain thoughts happening now reveals that personality is also always just what is happening now, and as such is always flexible, plastic, changing. As to losing memory, that's a not simple subject. There are arguments that memories are never lost. As to being just a collection of memories, in as much as being is a constant generator of memory, it would seem that being would be a factor in what a person is. All complicate stuff even to think about, and not easily, or usefully, simplified.

I was thinking about that the other day. Some people (and I'm one of them) don't remember a whole lot about their lives. In an interview, the actor Liev Shrieber talked about this: "I don’t remember things about my life. I can memorize a page of Shakespeare, no problem, but could I tell you where I was last week? No." Do such people have a lesser "amount" of personal identity? What if I suffered brain damage and lost half my memories? Would I be any less of a person?

I fully agree with you that we do not really know what memory is and that one could correctly argue that no single memory exists in an of it's self, but is rather an amalgamation or most of our memories. That still does however, in my opinion at least, mean that the individual memory can be crucial is the end product (you as a whole).




Your points are also valid is so far as may not remembering individual memories, but again, the collection of them to form you are impacted by them individually. If you entirely lost the memory and the impact/absorption of this memory, then you would indeed be affected. And, as for your last point, you would not be "less of a person" should you lose any or indeed most of your memories but you would, as CarpeDiem asked, be a "be a different person"

Most if not all of the atoms that make up your brain right now are now different from the atoms that you had when you were born. There are many things that you have forgotten and you are different when you don't have access to memories. Of course you are constantly adding new memories as you live, which again change you.

The thing which is called the self is a collection of memories, but it is also a system of organizing memories and impulses and logic. It is constantly changing and evolving. What is interesting is what happens when you believe "memories" you have about who you are when you are dreaming. I can easily believe that I have completely different memories, different proclivities, and even a different system of logic when I am dreaming, even though I still have a sense of "self." The "contiguous- self" may indeed be another one of those pesky illusions.