Why Is Personal Identity Important In Lockes View?
In his essay Of Identity and Diversity, Locke talks about the importance of personal identity. The title of his essay gives an idea of his view. Identity, according to Locke, is the memory and self consciousness, and diversity is the faculty to transfer memories across bodies and souls. In order to make his point more understandable, Locke defines man and person. Locke identifies a man as an animal of a certain form and a person as a thinking intelligent being. Furthermore, to Locke, a person has reasons and reflections and can consider itself as being itself in different times and places; and he/she does it with his/her consciousness (429). Basically, personal self is a particular body and personal identity is consciousness. In this essay, one will only focus on personal identity since it is the one that is most important to Locke. First, one will discuss the reasons why personal identity is important to Locke. Then, one will highlight the strengths of he’s position; in addition to…
