John Locke's Theory Of Personal Identity

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This paper will argue that the philosopher John Locke would have agreed that the human being Karla Faye Tucker should have been executed. I will start by examining the fundamental difference between a human being and a person as forwarded by Locke. In addition, this paper will address what identity over time or what it means to be the same person over a period of time is. I will then show that through Locke's personal opinions, he would have believed that the human being Karla Faye Tucker was the same person who committed the crime 14 years ago and is thus culpable for punishment. A strong objection to my argument however is of Hume's opinion or lack of opinion (account or lack of account) on personal identity. Hume argues that the concept of personal identity is a falsification and that our personal identity is nothing more than a collection of memories which we bundle together as memories. I will counter-argue however that " ". From Locke's point of view, a person is a "thinking intelligent being that has reason and reflection and can consider itself as itself...in different times and places...{through} only consciousness which is inseparable from thinking" and can only be considered the same person over time if he or she retains their memories. For Locke, it is the capacity to reason, understand, and browse through our memories and thoughts that makes a individual a full fledged person rather than being just a human being or dog or dolphin or any other non-human animal. This presents major implications on the concept of what identity over time is. Locke believed that when it came to this topic, our corporeal self was insignificant as living things cannot just depend on the sameness of particles to be considered to have th... ... middle of paper ... ... would not match the impression of Karla Faye Tucker in 1985 having condemned her previous life and being reborn as a born again Christian. Although Hume makes many points, there are a lot of flaws I find in his argument. To begin, if we accept that the mind is nothing but a bundle of sensations and memories, then it is possible that each strand of the bundle could have the capacity to function on their own and therefore act and exist independently. In addition, we designate certain sensations to the respective bundles they belong to and such shows a dependency of sensations on our minds that is in contrast to the prerequisites of the bundle theory. Ayer states that "if perceptions can exist only as members of the minds to which they belong, then it would seem that any account of the mind in terms of relations between perceptions would be viciously circular". This

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