John Locke, one of the most influential philosophers of all time, believed that the key to personal identity was within one’s consciousness. In Carly Pace’s discussion forum for John Locke she goes on to say that, “Locke defines consciousness as the force by which personal identity is established.” What John Locke means by consciousness is that it is a person’s mind and soul, essentially their entire personal and spiritual identity. John Locke goes as far to say that without a consciousness you aren’t even considered a real person. John Locke’s entire philosophical debate on the state of consciousness is to determine what it actually takes to truly distinguish a normal human being from a unique person. John Locke talks about identity in four …show more content…
Locke says that throughout our lives we cannot entirely remember the past but that doesn’t change the fact that these previous events have happened. According to Locke our consciousness is always associated with a human beings thinking. Human beings can think all they want but regardless of having immense thinking capabilities there is not a single moment in our lives where we can remember all of our own past experiences. In Carly Pace’s discussion forum for Locke she brings up a really big point in that our consciousness is “constantly being interrupted by forgetfulness and there is no moment in our lives where we can clearly remember out entire past.” (Carly …show more content…
Locke strongly believed that a consciousness, the mind and soul, is what is used to differentiate between a human being and a person. Locke believed that the identity of a person could be described by that person’s experiences, and memory. No two people can have the same consciousness and still be considered two separate people. A consciousness is a unique part of one’s self and it can never be duplicated by another. We can make all of the identity assumptions we want based on looks, form, or function but these are all useless when trying to identify a person. A Consciousness is not only the mind and soul of a person, it is also that persons own personal
Personal identity examines what makes a person at one time identical with a person at another. Many philosophers believe we are always changing and therefore, we cannot have a persisting identity if we are different from one moment to the next. However, many philosophers believe there is some important feature that determines a person’s identity and keeps it persistent. For John Locke, this important feature is memory, and I agree. Memory is the most important feature in determining a person’s identity as memory is the necessary and sufficient condition of personal identity.
The belief that the human state of mind is blank or else referred to as tabula rasa and knowledge is obtained through experience is an omnipresent idea throughout Locke’s writing An Essay Concerning Human Understanding. Written in the late 17th century, this philosophical work brings a ground-breaking thought on understanding the purpose of philosophy which focus should be placed on explaining thinking rather than creating systems (Goldie 32). As such, this writing embodied an essential tool in analyzing the role that philosophy had in the 17th century while reframing and redir...
Review all beliefs for clarity and coherence.”(South University Online) Different from Descrate and his philosophy, empiricist John Locke had different thoughts on the mind and body. Locke felt that what really lead to knowledge of things was our experiences beginning at the time we are born, he believed that our brains were blank with no knowledge or information and only existed until our senses activated at the time we were born. Locke believed that as an individual lives life and grows older we are then filled with experiences that allows our mind to communicate with our bodies, something that Descrate was unable to answer since he believed that the mind and the body were totally separate. Locke also thought that some things just are for example, an object just is, whether it be broken, dissolved, melted, cut it just is because it remains the same, same volume, ounces and weight, this is known as the primary qualities, the secondary qualities he believed were created in the
John Locke's account of identity was a radical rethinking on the subject of personal identity. Moreover, his conception of personal identity shaped modern thought about the subject by placing the emphasis on a psychological criterion . Locke argued that there is a distinction between the human being, the person, and the soul, and that the identity of the person relies upon the continuation of the same consciousness. In other words, Locke believed that personal identity remains if the same consciousness remained. However, at the time of publication, Locke was heavily criticised by those who argued that his uses of the word 'consciousness' was too ambiguous. Some, such as Thomas Reid, interpreted Locke as equating consciousness with memory, and as a result of the fallible nature of memory, argued that Locke's account of personal identity failed .
Locke says that all ideas come from experience and that that experience can be broken into two categories of perception, sensation and reflection. Sensation is what comes from our senses analyzing external objects. To hold an object and feel if it is hot or cold or if it is soft or spiky, sensations come from the senses interacting with external things. Reflection comes from within. It is the mind reflecting and thinking about its own operation. Locke states that reflection is being conscious of the mind and examining “thinking, doubting, believing, reasoning, knowing, willing and all the different actings of our own minds”. According to Locke every idea is either derived from sensation or reflection. He states “ he has not any idea in his mind but what one of these two have imprinted.” Locke goes on to explain evidence to support this by using children as an example. By simply being alive in the world children are being imprinted with infinite amounts of ideas as they experience things like light and color and tough and smell. If a child never tasted an apple they would not have the idea of what an apple tastes, it would need to come from the sensation or through the senses. Children do not obtain ideas through reflection because it takes more attention and contemplation. Children are too occupied with gaining ideas through external objects and sensation to concentrate on reflection and it only occurs once the child gets older. Besides classifying the process of gaining ideas as sensation and reflection Locke also talks of primary and secondary ideas. Primary ideas come through one sense, while secondary ideas come through multiple senses. This concept is important in Locke’s idea of sense impressions and obtaining
For individual property to exist, there must be a means for individuals to appropriate the things around them. Locke starts out with the idea of the property of person; each person owns his or her own body, and all the labor that they perform with the body. When an individual adds their own labor, their own property, to a foreign object or good, that object becomes their own because they have added their labor. This appropriation of goods does not demand the consent of humankind in general, each person has license to appropriate things in this way by individual initiative.
John Locke is a philosopher who wrote one of the first responses to the question of personal identity. Locke writes that you cannot say if something is the same or different unless you define what kind of identity you are looking at, he calls this relativity of identity. He then mentions that there are three different criterion for identity: bodily, human being, and personhood. Bodily states that if any matter has changed then it is no longer the same mass, human being states that the identity of a man stays the same as long as it continues the same life and personhood states that if something has a consciousness then it remains the same as longer as it consider itself itself. Now, when his view on identity is applied to Theseus’ ship one can see that he would believe that the ship at the destination would not be the same ship because it is only a body of matter and has no consciousness. One verify this by looking at one of his essays; he is talking about identity concerning animals and he states “there may be a manifest change of the parts; so that truly they are not either of them the same masses of matter, they be truly one of them the same oak and the other the same horse.”2 In this passage it shows that Locke believes the body of the living thing has changed and that they are classified as the same living thing is because of the life they
David Hume was a Scottish philosopher who lived in the 18th century. Hume marked a turning point in philosophy with his now almost infamous skepticism. And while he claimed to be a mild skeptic, the ramifications of his claims were felt by all subsequent philosophers. His critique was impactful for the sheer variety of subjects Hume seemingly uprooted. One such subject that Hume assaulted with his arguments was the idea of personal identity. Hume is in the middle of a philosophic dialogue were people reason metaphysical claims from arguments predicated upon the existence of the self. He does this to put an end to arguments that justify the soul and from that further claim erroneous notions such as god and substance before they can be made. Hume would compare our sense of self to a daily illusion we experience. Hume does posit how these illusions come about. Hume claims that
There he lay as a normal infant, red and whimpering. How does the mind of a baby grow to become one of the greatest political philosophers the world has known? From his response to the Puritan upbringing by his father, to “The Reasonableness of Christianity”, which John Locke published just five years before his death, John Locke's life demonstrates how God uses a mind dedicated to honest pursuit of ultimate Truth.
Why the necessity to fully analyse the definition of identity? Locke believed that the identity of things was not always as readily discernable as what first meets the eye and as a consequence set about defining the identity of all things from physical objects, the identity of living entities and ultimately the identity of man and the identity of person.
John Locke was born on August 29, 1632. He was born in a quaint village, called Wrington, in the county of Somerset, to two Puritan parents. His father was a captain in the English Civil War, and was a country lawyer. With his father being so involved with the English government, Locke was blessed to receive the best education out there.
One of Locke’s largest points is "All ideas come from sensation or reflection” (Locke 101). He thinks that man is completely blank when they are born and that their basic senses are what gives them knowledge. Locke states, “Let us then suppose the mind to be, as we say, white paper” (Locke 101). Locke is basically saying that human nature is like a blank slate, and how men experience life in their own ways is what makes them good or evil. Overall, Locke believes that any and all knowledge is only gained through life
The Egocentric Predicament is a problem associated with our ideas and how we perceive the world. Locke believes all knowledge come from personal ideas; these ideas are based upon our perception of the world. However, if we only see the world based on our own ideas how can there be any external or objective world. This begs questions similar to; can I really know an objective world exists? If there is no external world do any other minds –or ideas- other than my own exist? How can we ever test reality if it is our own mental construction? Locke concludes that we do have some knowing in relation to the subjective and objective reality that they do exist, but that we do not have a clear idea between one and of the other.
The personal identity continues to be same since a person is the same rational thing, same self, and thus the personal identity never changes (Strawson, 2014). Locke also suggests that personal identity has to change when the own self-changes and therefore even a little change in the personal identity has to change the self. He also provides an argument that a person cannot question what makes something today to remain the same thing it was a day ago or yesterday because one must specify the kind of thing it was. This is because something might be a piece of plastic but be a sharp utensil and thus suggest that the continuity of consciousness is required for something to remain the same yesterday and today. John Locke also suggests that two different things of a similar type cannot be at the same time at the same place. Therefore, the criteria of the personal identity theory of Locke depends on memory or consciousness remaining the same (Strawson, 2014). This is because provided a person has memory continuity and can remember being the same individual, feeling, thinking, and doing specific things, the individual can remain to be the same person irrespective of bodily
Locke and Hume both agree that memory is key to define personal identity. Locke believes that memory and consciousness define personal identity. While Hume’s thinks it is the source of personal identity, he does not fully agree with Locke and thinks that memory reveals personal identity, it does not create it. They both agree that there is a change; Locke understands that a person changes and what relates everything to who we are is