The Concept of Personal Identity

What is personal identity? This question has been asked and debated by philosophers for centuries. The problem of personal identity is determining what conditions and qualities are necessary and sufficient for a person to exist as the same being at one time as another. Some think personal identity is physical, taking a materialistic perspective believing that bodily continuity or physicality is what makes a person a person with the view that even mental things are caused by some kind of physical occurrence. Others take a more idealist approach with the belief that mental continuity is the sole factor in establishing personal identity holding that physical things are just reflections of the mind.

Identity refers to “a relation that everything has to itself and to no other thing”, and our perception of personal identity is the knowledge that we are ourselves, and who we have been – basically, that I am the same person I was last week, last year, etc. Leibniz’s Law states that if one thing (A) is identical to another (B) at one given point in time, they share the exact same properties, making them the same, one thing (A = B).

No matter how much a person desires to live according to their personal autonomy, he or she will never escape the influence of societal forces. Explicitly or subtlety, these forces shape our individuality. One intriguing manner that these societal forces manifests itself in is our name. As Ruth Graham writes, “It’s becoming increasingly clear today that names carry a wealth of information about the world around us, the family we arrived in, the moment we were born—and that they mark us as part of cultural currents bigger than we realize.” Names alone provide evidence that individuals are made by interactions with social institutions and groups. Ultimately, the inescapable nature of society’s influence demands individuals to ponder how much personal autonomy is actually autonomous and to what extent does the pursuit of personal autonomy lead to a life of emptiness and vanity.

The purpose of this essay is to define what Personal Identity is by analyzing John Locke’s argument for Personal Identity. John Locke’s argument for Personal Identity will be examined, in order to establish a better understanding of whether or not the argument for personal identity could be embraced. In order to do so, the essay will i) State and explain Locke’s argument that we are not substances or mere souls and ii) State and explain Locke’s concept of personal identity and its relations to what he calls self, consciousness and punishment. This essay will also focus on Thomas Reid’s perspective on personal identity and iii) State and explain Reid’s criticisms of Locke’s theory of personal identity, and lastly iv) I will evaluate whether or not Reid’s objections are good. Locke’s argument may seem to be plausible at first, however, the essay will conclude by rejecting John Locke’s argument for personal identity due to Locke’s inadequate reasonings and Thomas Reid’s criticisms.

Personal identity is a very controversial aspect of life. Who are we? What defines us? According to John Locke, psychological continuity is what defines our personal identity. Locke discusses the case of the prince and the cobbler to help shape his theory. However, I absolutely disagree with Locke’s theory. Locke’s theory of personal identity creates many problems, such as the duplication problem. By reformulating Locke’s theory of personal identity, we still come across these problems that prove Locke’s theory false.

Schectman's highly influential theory of narrative self-construction represents the best of the consciousness-based theories on personal identity. Schechtman's theory is ground in the ideas of John Locke, who theorized that the self was not the continuation of an immaterial soul or a material body, but rather the continuation of consciousness. Locke defined a person as "...a thinking, intelligent Being, that has reason and reflection, and can consider it self as it self, the same thinking thing in different times and places." (Schechtman, 1994, 5.4). In other words, Locke believes that the subject must have the ability to be self-conscious in order to be a

Personal identity is essential in the human experience. Identity is complex and can be broken down into two main groups: introspective identity, and bodily identity. Introspective identity is based off of the groups, mentalities, or beliefs that you align yourself with, and bodily identity is based off of the physical side of yourself. Whether physical or introspective, your identity impacts every action you take. Whether choices ranging from what colors you prefer to which college you want to attend are primarily based off of your introspective identity, which is a combination of both memory and consciousness, physical identity impacts how others perceive you. Consciousness is mainly the awareness of bodily identity as well as continuous introspective identify, while memory is awareness of introspective identity. These two different facets of identity are imperative in the distinction between bodily identity and introspective identity. In means of personal identity introspective identity (which is evident in memory), is essential, while bodily identity (based partially in consciousness) has less credit.

A person is a thinking thing that has reason and reflection and thinks of itself as the same thinking thing over time.  John Locke, an English philosopher argued that what makes a person able to identify themselves through time is continuity of one's memories and not the substance of the body.  Bernard Williams, another English philosopher criticized Locke's theory of personal identity through his body switching experiment.  William's argued that personal identity is found on the body and continuity of one's memories isn't necessary for personal identity.  I am going to argue that personal identity is found on continuity of one's memories by presenting Locke's view of personal identity, presenting William's criticism of Locke's theory through his body switching experiments, and providing my own reasons on why personal identity can be found on continuity of one's memories and not the substance of the body.

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.

In the philosophical branch of personal identity there exist several approaches to the question what is it for the same person to exist over time. It is important to stress that we are referring to numerical identity here, i.e. the identity of a person over a period of time. What is it on the basis of which we say that a person on time point 1 is same as that on time point 2?

In his essay Of Identity and Diversity, Locke talks about the importance of personal identity. The title of his essay gives an idea of his view. Identity, according to Locke, is the memory and self consciousness, and diversity is the faculty to transfer memories across bodies and souls. In order to make his point more understandable, Locke defines man and person. Locke identifies a man as an animal of a certain form and a person as a thinking intelligent being. Furthermore, to Locke, a person has reasons and reflections and can consider itself as being itself in different times and places; and he/she does it with his/her consciousness (429). Basically, personal self is a particular body and personal identity is consciousness. In this

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

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.

Personal identity is a concept within philosophy that has persisted throughout its history. In the eighteenth century this problem came to a head. David Hume dedicated a portion of his philosophy in the attempts to finally put what he saw as a fallacious claim concerning the soul to rest. In the skeptical wake of Hume, German idealist, beginning with Immanuel Kant, were left with a variety of epistemic and metaphysical problems, the least of which was personal identity.

In order to get clear Locke’s theory of personal identity, first Locke gives us his view of person as some kind of thinking thing that is not a substance. Locke’s intuitions from changing the parts of a unified life to identifying a unified body which persists over repair and replacement helps illustrate personal identity to allow for the substance of the reasoning being to change over time provided the reasoning beings share one continued life (ECHU 27). However, Locke’s theory of personal identity differs from unified life because it requires the unity of consciousness.