Of Identity And Diversity John Locke

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, A Treatise of Human Nature, David Hume writes, “… to explain the nature of personal identity which has become so great a question in philosophy, especially of late years in England, where all the abstruser sciences are study’d with a particular ardour and application” (Hume 258). In this, Hume is beginning to show his contention with placing the branch of philosophy dealing with the ideas of the self in the same category as the complex sciences. This is also a dig at John Locke, an englishman, whose theories on the self had been greatly dominating the field up until this point. Locke’s theory is that each human is born a ‘tabula rasa’ or a blank slate upon which the self is formed solely through

Identity is defined as “the fact of being who or what a person or thing is” (Oxford University Press). Personal identity deals with questions that arise about ourselves by virtue of our being people. Some of these questions are familiar that happen to all of us every once in a while: What am I? When did I begin? What will happen to me when I die? There are many different categories that define us as people (Olson). Our Race, Class, and Culture define who we are so much that it affects how we should live our life.

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 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.

John Locke claims that memory is the key to identity, so “as far [as] someone’s memory goes, is so far the identity of the person.” (Campbell) First, Locke explains the concept of body swapping in terms of the prince and the cobbler: the “transfer of memories between the body of the prince and the body of the cobbler would mean the people have swapped bodies.” (Campbell) In this example, the

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.

There are many issues with John Locke’s theory. For example many people cannot remember what they had for breakfast- does this in turn make them a different person to who ate breakfast yesterday (Della Rocca M 2014)? This question is raised and even looked upon by Locke, he simply states that this in fact means you are not the same person as the one who ate breakfast other morning. This is a complex idea to wrap ones head around. How can we be the same person we were ten years ago and yet not the same person we were yesterday morning? No philosophical theory can be considered perfect and though Locke’s theory has issues it still does not disclaim the validity as all of the viewpoints presented within this essay have problems that still lack solutions.

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.

Seeking identity is an important aspect in the present global society. The interactions of between different groups of people are characterized by the unique qualities the members of those groups identify with. These groups are defined by race, class, religion, sex, politics, etc. Ironically, as a whole, mankind has more similarities than differences: religions typically share the common core values of love and peace, facial expressions are understood worldwide, and mankind even has a 90% shared genome. Perhaps our similarities are what drive us to seek individuality, or some evidence of specialness, and purpose: we seem to have an accepted idea that “If I’m different, I must be here for contribution and reason”. I find Locke’s philosophy compelling

Locke rationalizes, an older person may not remember their “self” as young child, but they have memories from when they were middle-aged. When they were middle-aged, they remember their “self” as a young child, therefore their consciousness can be linked.

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

Identity is what evolves us, it is what makes us think the way we do, and act the way we act, in essence, a person’s identity is their everything. Identity separates us from everyone else, and while one may be very similar to another, there is no one who is exactly like you; someone who has experienced exactly what you have, feels the way you do about subjects, and reacts the same to the events and experiences you have had. This became prevalent to me as I read through many books, that everyone goes through the process of finding who they are. A prevalent theme throughout literature is the idea that over time one develops their identity through life over time, in contrast to being born with one identity and having the same