PHL 301 1st Edition Lecture 22Outline of Last Lecture I.Empiricist methodII.Concept EmpiricismIII.Judgement Empiricism Outline of Current LectureI.Aristotle’s viewII.Locke’s viewIII.Thoughts define personsa.The implications of Locke’s realization Current LecturePersonal identity refers to differentiating between one thing and another. Not between, say, a bird and a car, but between this person and that person. The empiricist John Locke, agreeing with the rationalist Descartes’s views, believes “I am a thinking being.” He addresses the question, “What makes me, me?” What is it in general that constitutes the identity of objects across time?Aristotle addresses the same question by saying that substances can have contrary qualities at different points in time. As we have discussed in previous lectures, accidental properties of a substance can change, but essential properties cannot. Locke does not agree with Aristotle. He adopts a theory of relative identity. He says it depends on what the thing we are looking at it is. For example, he says that the two questions: “What makes a pile of sand that pile of sand?” and “What makes a person that person?” are inherently different questions. With the sand example, if a truck takes away a small part of a large pile of sand, we would generally still say that the pile of sand is the same pile of sand. However, if the truck took all of the sand away and a different truck placed different sand in the same spot in the same shape and quantity, we are more likely to say that it is a different pile of sand. Locke says this is a matter of the continuity of substance. What leads us to say that the pile of sand is different is a sudden change of the truck taking it all away. If it had been gradual wind moving it all away, we would still call it the same pile of sand. Let’s look at a guitar. After replacing strings and the neck of a guitar, we can still call the guitar the same guitar. However, replacing the body at the same time may make us think that the guitar is a different guitar. These notes represent a detailed interpretation of the professor’s lecture. GradeBuddy is best used as a supplement to your own notes, not as a substitute.Another example is animals. With animals, Locke says it is a question of bodily continuity. A cat might lose its limb but still be the same cat.However, Locke says being the same person is not the same as being the same animal. People have responsibilities and rights that don’t apply to guitars, cats, or piles of sand. Aristotlewould say that being the same human being, as in the animal example, and being the same person is the same thing. Locke, however, disagrees and says that thought defines the person. This stems from his agreement with Descartes’s “I am a thing that thinks.” Locke says a person’s consciousness must be continuous and tied together. In a person’s stream of consciousness, there are references to the future and the past. He says that one person can be reincarnated to another, since their personhood is not tied to their body whatsoever. He even says that the same person could occupy two different bodies during sleep and wake of one body, as long as the consciousness was continuous. Similarly, there is no reason in principle why two people could not occupy one body. Finally, he says that life after death may be possible even if the bodywere not resurrected, since consciousness is not tied to the
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