Analysis Of René Descartes Views Of Personal Identity

Many of the problems of philosophy are thousands of years old just like the argument of personal identity. In philosophy the problems that are often more important that one solution. They are ways of seeking an understanding. John Locke and René Descartes’ views of personal identity helps one increase the understanding of our self. John Locke’s answer to the problem is that there is a sameness in body overtime. His views can be found in his work “An Essay Concerning Human Understanding.” René Descartes’ views on personal identity can be found in his “Meditations on First Philosophy.” According to John Locke, the 17th century philosopher, identity means being one thing and not another. It’s what makes you, you and me, me. This leads to many

It is clear that he thinks of his self as a thinking thing. He states that he is a thing that thinks and doubts. Unlike Locke, he believes that the link is between the mind and body through sensations. Descartes argues that he has perceptions just like the ones he has in sensation while he is dreaming. These dreams seem very much real to him while he is asleep. He believes that there is no signs to distinguish between a dream experience from the waking experience. He uses the example of the dream he has of him sitting by a fire. In this dream he can fell the warmth of the fire just like he feels it in his waking life. Since he feels the warmth of the fire in both experiences, there is no way for him to tell when he is dreaming or not. If his senses can convince him of the heat of the fire when it isn’t around, he cannot trust when he feels it in his waking experience. He comes to the solution that the self comes from the mind and not the body. In the second meditation he explains how doubt plays a role in his famous statement “I am, I exist.”(Descartes,4) His hypotheses of dreaming, evil and error all lead to the cogito argument. The Cogito argument shows that I know something. If a person assumes there is a deceiver because they are deceived then they must exist. Any state of thinking will conclude that I exist. I can be deceived about the content of any thought, but I cannot be

For Descartes, a person is defined as “ a thinking thing”(Descartes, 5) Locke’s view is different because he believes a person is only a person as long as they can remember. Locke’s view has some memory gaps in the argument. This weakens his arguments because the question arises that if I cannot remember certain events in my life does that ruin my identity? Descartes focuses on epistemology based on doubt and skepticism. It seems as if where Descartes leaves off, Locke picks up. He is responsible for the transition from empiricism to rationalism. No one of them is more superior then the other but instead compliment each