Analysis Of John Locke And Ren� Descartes On Self And Personal Identity

John Locke states that personal identity is a matter of physiological continuity that is based on the consciousness of a person rather than the individual’s body. Personal identity is constituted by memory connections; specifically the depiction of autobiographical memory connections that result in constituting personal identity. John Locke states that a person’s personality and psychology can be transferred to another body and that individual can still stay the same person because the consciousness of the person did not change. This idea is known as transplant intuition. This intuition is the basis of the account of personal identity. If a cerebrum was removed from one body and transplanted into a different body, the transplant intuition

In John Locke’s argument for personal identity, he believes that we are not substances or mere souls. In his argument, Locke stresses to convey that there is a crucial difference between distinguishing a “man” and a “person” (Locke 221). According to Locke’s definition, a man is a living body which is homogenous to an animal’s body. Therefore, any living body of a particular shapes refers to a “man.” Locke emphasizes that a “person” is a sensible being that is aware of its own

Just what is a person? What makes a person, a person? Are humans just made of atoms and molecules just like what the scientists say? Or are humans something else, a soul perhaps? This has been debated for centuries by great philosophers, and one of them is John Locke. His idea of identity of a human is that humans are conscious beings thus their identity involve consciousness. However, Thomas Reid believes that Locke is wrong and identity of humans are transitive. But Locke’s

Personal identity, in a philosophical point of view, is the problem of explaining what makes a person numerically the same over a period of time, despite the change in qualities. The major questions answered by Locke were questions concerning the nature of identity, persons, and immorality (Jacobsen, 2016). This essay will discuss the three themes John Locke presents in his argument regarding personal identity, which are, the concept of categories, substance vs. man vs. person, and the continuity of consciousness.

He begins with stating that in order to determine if something exists, the meaning of existence and reality must be defined, and the grounds of which this is based off must be indisputable. Beginning with doubting his senses, Descartes realizes how often sight, smell, touch, hearing, and taste can distort reality, leading you to believe something that is not as it seems (2). Descartes also proposes the idea that dreams can trick the sleeper into thinking they are awake, or even that the entire reality he knows could possibly be a dream. For dreams can seem as realistic as reality, so he debated that everything could very well be an illusion of the imagination. Lastly, Descartes ponders the thought of how an all-powerful being could be deceiving him and the rest of the world at any given moment, causing what we believe to be true at any moment to actually be false. However, Descartes determines that dreams have to be based off of some form of reality, which therefore shows that a reality exists. He also comes to think that since God is good and true, it must be a demon doing the deceiving. For if a divine God was a deceiver, it would not allow us to perceive the truth sometimes and then occasionally deceive us. There must be a misleading counterpart to the truthful, good deity, which would be known as the demon

Locke's view on personal identity has strengths but it also has several weaknesses or limitations. One important strength is when Locke states that a person should be held responsible for his/her actions if he/she recalls doing those actions. In this case, the person

Locke’s diction he uses to state his position on self-identity is explicit to illustrate is ideas. The philosophical problem being examined is what association does “self” have with the brain and what connections “self” as holds with the mind. That is to they there is a centralized location either the brain or the mind that houses the conditions for the identity of “self”. John Locke’s connotation of “self” is that he does not repudiate the idea of their being a physical substance that house “Self”, however that “self” is conditional upon the consciousness of that individual. I agree primarily with Locke’s due to him also stating persons are only their consciousness if and only if they possessed the ability of recalling the thoughts and events of their earlier “self” competent to have a sufficient identification of one’s

Descartes as a rationalist believes that knowledge comes from the mind alone. During the First Meditation, Descartes came to the conclusion that there must be some kind of evil deceiver that "leads him to a state of doubt" (Descartes 77). Descartes starts out with the fact that distant sensations are subject to doubt and uncertainty. He then goes on to try and cast doubt onto close sensations. Descartes starts off by stating that close sense perception must be certain because we are not crazy, and only a insane person would doubt what was right in front of them. Descartes then uses the dream argument to cast uncertainty on close sense perception because "they are as lively, vivid and clear as reality is when we are awake" (Descartes 76). Descartes then states that geometry and math are certain. "For whether I am awake or sleeping, two and three added together always make five, and a square never has more than four sides; and it does not seem possible that truths so apparent can be suspected of any falsity or uncertainty" (Descartes 98). Descartes comes to realize this certainty because math, geometry, and the simple sciences can be understood and proved through logic and reasoning. He then uses his Deceiver Argument to cast doubt on close sensations. He questions how we know for certain that God is good, and how we know that

Who are you? What defines who you are? Why makes you who you are? What is your personal identity? Have you ever sat around pondering the meaning of life, or maybe just your life? Have you asked yourself any of these questions? What were your answers? These are questions that people have been trying to answer since the beginning of time, before me and you were ever born or thought of. People live their whole lives trying to figure out exactly who they are and what their purpose is in life. In the field of philosophy, many philosophers have had theories on personal identity and a person’s “self.” These people have gone down in history books for their theories on a person’s identity: John Locke and Rene’ Descartes. These are two of the most

He finds it plausible that we are all living in a dream and we have never experienced reality. He can no longer give any credence to his senses and finds himself in a place of complete uncertainty. Descartes comes to the conclusion that nothing can be perceived more easily and more evidently than his own mind. He has discovered that even bodies are not accurately perceived by the senses or the faculty of imagination, and are only accurately being perceived by the intellect. He also realizes that they are not distinguished through being touched, smelled, or tasted, but by being understood alone. (An apple is an apple because our mind tells us that it is an apple.) It is the faculty of reason that gives the knowledge and lets the mind know the truths and essences of objects. Descartes assumes that all of us can be decided by our senses, someone can see something far away, and then discover that is not what we thought it was. Or even a oar when is immerse half in water attempt to be bent, but instead is straight. Descartes think that we cannot always be sure of what we sense, and gives the example of himself seated by the fire.

I will argue that Locke believed that if you remain the same person, there are various entities contained in my body and soul composite that do not remain the same over time, or that we can conceive them changing. These entities are matter, organism (human), person (rational consciousness and memory), and the soul (immaterial thinking substance). This is a intuitive interpretation that creates many questions and problems. I will evaluate Locke's view by explaining what is and what forms personal identity, and then explaining how these changes do conceivably occur while a human remains the same person.

How is John Locke acknowledged in society? Rene Descartes became accredited by what? Well, people knew these men for their philosophical views, their views on identity varied undoubtedly. For example, Descartes famous line "I think, therefore I am" alludes to the fact that he most certainly exists. On the other hand, Locke believes that if you committed a crime, but cannot recall your actions, then you should not serve time for your crime. Hence, Descartes perspective of identity contains the self, as Locke reveals that identity is something that cannot have two things existing at the same time.

From this brief understanding of identity Locke creates his theory of personal identity. Locke first makes the important distinction between non-living objects and living objects. The identity of a non-living object, a bundle of atoms, changes, “if one of these atoms is taken away, or one new one added, it is no longer the same mass or the same body.” (Locke 368R). In Locke’s theory the moment the atoms change even in the slightest bit with one atom being lost or added the bundle of atoms are no longer the same bundle that existed before the addition/subtraction of atoms. For example, if a stick of chalk made a line on a blackboard for every time one atom of chalk left stick to form the line a completely new stick of chalk would exist.

Would life have meaning without memories? Only certain people understand and know how life would be without them: gray, dark, and miserable. Life without memories makes no sense. In fact, everything would be the same and people would only think of the future instead of remembering all the beautiful things they did in the past. John Locke, an English empiricist philosopher, uses the idea of Memory Theory to shape our understanding of personal identity. The Memory Theory is a theory of personal identity that focuses on the mental connection of memory. Personal identity consists of the sameness of a thinking intelligent being such as the possession of the same body or brain. With regards to Locke’s view, personal identity can be extended as to

Philosophers over time have tried to explain their understanding on the view of personal identity some of the like Rene Descartes adding the views of the existence of the material souls or egos. His views on the existence of egos suggest that people have bodies which can die but still they continue to exist. In as such other philosophers proposed diverging views from him suggesting that such a simple