Locke Personal Identity

John Locke believes that personal identity is about the human mind that has episodes of overlapping memories occur from how I can explain it based on how I perceived while reading his point of views. Locke considers the self to be really based upon our memory or consciousness and not on the matter of either soul or the body. From what I perceived, I think that on how Locke argued against the soul and body theories of personal identity was that the mind is defined by the experience, the perception and the rumination. But Locke’s main argument regarding personal identity is that personal identity is all about our self-consciousness. In Chapter 6 “Self” of Introducing Philosophy by Solomon, it states, “whose identity is based on the continuity of the body, just as you would say that you have had “the same car” for

ten years even if almost every part has been replaced during that time” (384). This statement is such a great example for how Locke’s perception is regarding his beliefs on personal identity and that is for the body or the mind or as anything can change, while the consciousness stays the same.

He believes that the self is not based off the brain, or the body, or any other matter but from consciousness. Now to go more in depth about Locke’s argument against the soul of personal identity, in Chapter 6 “Self” of Introducing Philosophy by Solomon, it states after the writings of the Prince and Cobbler that, “Everyone sees that the cobbler would be the same person with the prince, but who would say it was the same man?” (383). When he brought up that question, from how viewed it was like he was thinking in his mind that if the same substance changes, or thinks that it can change, it can remain the same but be a different person. Yet based from Locke’s An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, he made a clear expression of his beliefs that consciousness can go from one place to another, in doing so while the soul is to become different, but the consciousness stays the same which leads to that personal identity remains the same as well since personal identity is based upon the consciousness. From what I think after learning and reading Locke’s beliefs, I would have to say that I don’t completely agree or think that all of Locke’s

statements are true. Based from how I was taught, we consider our identity or our “self”, who we are as a person is a matter of development and memory is not. This leads to me questioning about Locke’s opinion on how identity remains the same if memory were to be gone or loss. Then I think to myself, does that mean that those who have troubles of memory loss don’t exist then? To think whether Locke’s beliefs are true or not, I do not know if I can agree with him on everything. In my opinion, I believe that we are living in this world with a mind, body and soul so for Locke’s statements on how our consciousness remains the same yet our souls become different is something that I did not grow into believing in and still doesn’t now. Nevertheless, I want to state that just because I believe in something different from Locke’s views does not mean that I am correct or that he is wrong, vice versa. It just means that we have different perceptions with our own beliefs.