Personal Identity, By John Locke - 1169 Words

There are many questions surrounding personal identity: whether it consists in consciousness, whether we are just a soul or a mind and are we only who we can remember being? Locke claims that our personal identity is found in our identity of consciousness, yet can this be true if a person can change bodies, or one mind can be inhabited by various persons? In this essay, I will first be looking at Locke’s account of personal identity and how he comes to the conclusion that personal identity consists over time. From this, I will then counter-argue Locke’s ideas with Thomas Reid’s discussion on the transitivity of identity, and how Locke’s argument of how consciousness makes the same person over time is inconsistent. In response to Reid’s†¦show more content†¦Locke does note that consciousness can be lost in forgetfulness and that in this case, it is unjust to hold one accountable in the present for an action done in the past where consciousne ss was and still is unavailable. This is because reward and punishment are not attached to the man, but to the person. An understanding of the foul-fold distinction helps us to understand this idea further. The four parts to this are: the material substance (the body), the living human being (the man), the thinking substance (the soul) and the person. If consciousness is lost, then the thinking substance (the soul) remains the same, but the person is different. Consciousness is the criteria for personal identity as it is this that extends to past or future actions, ensuring the same personal self and providing the identity. Thomas Reid’s Response Reid argued that Locke was mistaken and that his ideas led to a contradiction. Locke’s theory states that for someone to be the same person over time, they must possess consciousness; the person remembering and the one remembered are one and the same person. This idea can be laid out in the format: A=B, B=C, therefore A=C by logic. However, A equalling C may not in fact occur. This can be represented in the followingShow MoreRelatedJohn Locke And Personal Identity1224 Words   |  5 PagesJohn 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 bec ause the consciousnessRead MoreJohn Locke on Personal Identity906 Words   |  4 Pagesbetween them. What is it for A and B to be the same person. That is the issue of person identity. For example what is it for me to be the same person now and when I was a baby. Is that justified to be the same person? Why? How? Locke more or less invented this topic. 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