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Classmate 1

John Locke was an English philosopher and physician born in 1632. He had a considerable influence on laying groundwork for epistemology and the nature of self. Locke as a physician provided a different perspective he believed in the empiricist view that knowledge comes from experience. In the video John Locke, he argues “No man’s knowledge here can go beyond his experience.” (University of Shed, 2015).  His work on epistemology and his commitment to his ideas on theory of mind. “ In John Locke's philosophy, tabula rasa was the theory that the human mind is at birth a "blank slate" without rules for processing data, and that data is added and rules for processing are formed solely by one's sensory experiences” (New World Encyclopedia, 2018). This is essential to an individual being free to define their identity or character, an individual’s freedom to be the author of his or her soul. “Reason plays a subsequent role in helping to figure out the significance of our sense and to reach intelligent conclusions” (Chaffee, 2016, page 109). Locke believed our conscious awareness and memory from experiences enabled and are crucial to understand self-identity.

Locke’s best known work is an essay Concerning Human Understanding entitled On Personal Identity which reflects on how we experience ourselves in our daily lives. Locke made five points the first is on discovering the nature of personal identity, which is to find out what it means to be a person. Second, Locke says “A person for Locke is thus the kind of entity that can think self reflectively, and think of itself as persisting over time” (Gordon-Roth, 2019).  Another point is adding on that someone considers themselves to be the same thing in different times and places. For example, you look at your room today is it the same room tomorrow the answer depends on the what the thing is. The fourth point was that consciousness always accompanies thinking. “Locke explains; “When we see, hear, smell, taste, feel, meditate, or will anything, we know that we do so” (Chaffee, 2016, page 110). Even if we are submerged in something we always have the potential to become aware that of being engaged in the activity. The fifth point that consciousness is necessary for our belief of unified self-identity in different times and places. “Consciousness can be transferred from one substance to another, and thus, while the soul is changed, consciousness remains the same, thereby preserving the personal identity through the change” (Nimbalkar, 2011). Locke believes that you have concept of self-identity because you are aware of you thinking and you have memories of yourself in the past thus helps us acknowledge our identity. Locke proves this point in his essay when he speaks of that our personal identity is distinct from substances it finds associated with.

Critics found fault in Locke’s memory theory being linked to self- identity and called it absurd. Thomas Reid said “he believed that personal identity was something that could not be determined by operations, and that personal identity should be determined by something indivisible” (Nimbalkar, 2011). Just because one cannot remember something does not mean that they did not experience it. One strength of memory as the key to self-identity is associations that one makes when young are the foundation of the self than those made later (Nimbalkar, 2011).  This is a strong point in that we have the ability to become aware of our consciousness and helps self-identity.

Classmate 2

 Locke’s empiricism approach to the “Tabula Rasa” (Blank Slates) translates to the question of are we born with knowledge? Or do we gain knowledge by our experiences? Locke believed that our knowledge is obtained by our sensory experiences, but that our sensory experiences are not always reliable. In his studies of An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, Locke gives his viewpoint on human knowledge. He argues that the mind at the start of our birth is a tabula rasa (blank slate) and that it is transformed with the help of our five senses. For instance, let us say that you imagined what your dream home would look like, but your dream home could only be made up of things you have encountered through your sensuous experiences. This is Locke’s ideal philosophy way of empiricism. Locke opened an insight into a new area of philosophical research regarding the notion of self-identity.  

In the subject of self-identity, we can conclude that self-identification is a person who exists at an earlier time, is the same person who exists in the present. Locke’s review of the notion of personal identity and the involvement of memory straddles the line between consciousness and rationality. He expresses that the self is “a thinking intelligent being, that has reasons and reflections, and can consider itself as itself, the same thinking thing, in different times and places” and continues to outline personal identity simply as “the sameness of a rational being” (Locke). Therefore, if the person is itself and shares the same rational being, then the person can identify as having the same identity. He then proceeds to explain that to be one, one must be an intelligent being and that because “consciousness always accompanies thinking” (Locke) apart from how far beyond our consciousness can exceed. In regards to his statement one can conclude that Locke is referring consciousness in correspondence of memory. If we refer to Locke’s approach to empiricism and the way we obtain knowledge, we can grasp that Locke approach was through sensory experience. Hence “that has reasons and reflections, and can consider itself as itself, the same thinking thing, in different times and places.” (Locke) He is asserting that to reflect on the various times and places, one would have to open their memory on one past action and thought to determine one personal identity. In addition to Locke empiricism approach if one can gain the experience then one can remember it. Locke demonstrate that memory is the key points on how we self-identify. However, Locke also mention that memory can be our default in recollecting certain experiences. Locke added that, “in all these cases, our consciousness being interrupted, and we losing sight of our past selves, doubts are raised rather we are thinking thing.” (Locke) In summary of Locke outline of memory theory and the correlations to personal identity one can agree that memory is indispensable and necessary and although it may not always be reliable it is the birth of empirical and personal identity.