Philosophy

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In his "Philosophy Bites" clip, Dr. Christopher Shields mentioned how philosopher John Locke’s theory of personal identity

emphasizes our psychological self and under-emphasizes the body. In this excerpt from An Essay Concerning Human

Understanding, Locke is grappling with issues of identity over time. He is apt to point out that when dealing with the

concept of identity, one must pay particular attention to what object one is discussing with regards to identity. His point is

that what constitutes identity in objects is different for different objects. So, it cannot be that unity of substance (some

sort of physical continuity through space and time) is the correct notion to use when thinking about the identity of every

object. Locke makes the point that the criteria for tracing the identity of a particular tree through time, from acorn to oak

tree, would be different than the criteria one would use for tracing a particular human being’s identity through time. For

Locke, different objects require different criteria for establishing self-identity through space and time.

Remember in Unit 1, Bertrand Russell asks us to “expand the self” and consider our knowledge from new perspectives.

That is what Locke is doing by asking us to consider how our experience of memory relates to what we think of as our

“self.”

John Lock on Personal Identity

What makes us human? For John Locke it is our memories that connect together the different parts of our lives rather

than bodily continuity. Gillian Anderson explains.

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Of Identity and Diversity

By John Locke: From An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690)

John Locke on Personal IdentityJohn Locke on Personal Identity

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1.Wherein identity consists. Another occasion the mind often takes of comparing is the very being of things, when,

considering anything as existing at any determined time and place, we compare it with itself existing at another time, and

thereon form the ideas of identity and diversity. When we see anything to be in any place in any instant of time, we are

sure (be it what it will) that it is that very thing, and not another which at that same time exists in another place, how like

and undistinguishable soever it may be in all other respects: and in this consists identity, when the ideas it is attributed to

vary not at all from what they were that moment wherein we consider their former existence, and to which we compare

the present. For we never �nding, nor conceiving it possible, that two things of the same kind should exist in the same

place at the same time, we rightly conclude, that, whatever exists anywhere at any time, excludes all of the same kind, and

is there itself alone. When therefore we demand whether anything be the same or no, it refers always to something that

existed such a time in such a place, which it was certain, at that instant, was the same with itself, and no other. From

whence it follows, that one thing cannot have two beginnings of existence, nor two things one beginning; it being

impossible for two things of the same kind to be or exist in the same instant, in the very same place; or one and the same

thing in different places. That, therefore, that had one beginning, is the same thing; and that which had a different

beginning in time and place from that, is not the same, but diverse. That which has made the dif�culty about this relation

has been the little care and attention used in having precise notions of the things to which it is attributed.

2. Identity of substances. We have the ideas but of three sorts of substances: 1. God. 2. Finiteintelligences. 3. Bodies.

First, God is without beginning, eternal, unalterable, and everywhere, and therefore concerning his identity there can be

no doubt.

Secondly, Finite spirits having had each its determinate time and place of beginning to exist, the relation to that time and

place will always determine to each of them its identity, as long as it exists.

Thirdly, The same will hold of every particle of matter, to which no addition or subtraction of matter being made, it is the

same. For, though these three sorts of substances, as we term them, do not exclude one another out of the same place, yet

we cannot conceive but that they must necessarily each of them exclude any of the same kind out of the same place: or

else the notions and names of identity and diversity would be in vain, and there could be no such distinctions of

substances, or anything else one from another. For example: could two bodies be in the same place at the same time; then

those two parcels of matter must be one and the same, take them great or little; nay, all bodies must be one and the same.

For, by the same reason that two particles of matter may be in one place, all bodies may be in one place: which, when it can

be supposed, takes away the distinction of identity and diversity of one and more, and renders it ridiculous. But it being a

contradiction that two or more should be one, identity and diversity are relations and ways of comparing well founded,

and of use to the understanding.

Identity of modes and relations. All other things being but modes or relations ultimately terminated in substances, the

identity and diversity of each particular existence of them too will be by the same way determined: only as to things

whose existence is in succession, such as are the actions of �nite beings, v.g. motion and thought, both which consist in a

continued train of succession, concerning their diversity there can be no question: because each perishing the moment it

Check Your Answer

Locke begins by noting that we never conceive it possible that:

(a) two things of the same kind should exist in the same place at the same time

(b) two persons of the same kind should exist in the same place at the same time

(c) two statements can be true at the same time

(d) two pieces can be a part of the same whole at the same time

The correct answer is (d) two pieces can be a part of the same whole at the same time.

When we see anything to be in any place in any instant of time, we are sure (be it what it will) that it is that very thing,

and not another which at that same time exists in another place, how like and undistinguishable soever it may be in

all other respects: and in this consists identity, when the ideas it is attributed to vary not at all from what they were

that moment wherein we consider their former existence, and to which we compare the present. For we never

�nding, nor conceiving it possible, that two things of the same kind should exist in the same place at the same time,

we rightly conclude, that, whatever exists anywhere at any time, excludes all of the same kind, and is there itself

alone.

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begins, they cannot exist in different times, or in different places, as permanent beings can at different times exist in

distant places; and therefore no motion or thought, considered as at different times, can be the same, each part thereof

having a different beginning of existence.

3. Principium Individuationis. From what has been said, it is easy to discover what is so much inquired after, the

principium individuationis; and that, it is plain, is existence itself; which determines a being of any sort to a particular time

and place, incommunicable to two beings of the same kind. This, though it seems easier to conceive in simple substances

or modes; yet, when re�ected on, is not more dif�cult in compound ones, if care be taken to what it is applied: v.g. let us

suppose an atom, i.e. a continued body under one immutable super�cies, existing in a determined time and place; it is

evident, that, considered in any instant of its existence, it is in that instant the same with itself. For, being at that instant

what it is, and nothing else, it is the same, and so must continue as long as its existence is continued; for so long it will be

the same, and no other. In like manner, if two or more atoms be joined together into the same mass, every one of those

atoms will be the same, by the foregoing rule: and whilst they exist united together, the mass, consisting of the same

atoms, must be the same mass, or the same body, let the parts be ever so differently jumbled. But if one of these atoms be

taken away, or one new one added, it is no longer the same mass or the same body. In the state of living creatures, their

identity depends not on a mass of the same particles, but on something else. For in them the variation of great parcels of

matter alters not the identity: an oak growing from a plant to a great tree, and then lopped, is still the same oak; and a colt

grown up to a horse, sometimes fat, sometimes lean, is all the while the same horse: though, in both these cases, there may

be a manifest change of the parts; so that truly they are not either of them the same masses of matter, though they be

truly one of them the same oak, and the other the same horse. The reason whereof is, that, in these two cases- a mass of

matter and a living body- identity is not applied to the same thing.

4. Identity of vegetables. We must therefore consider wherein an oak differs from a mass of matter, and that seems to me

to be in this, that the one is only the cohesion of particles of matter any how united, the other such a disposition of them

as constitutes the parts of an oak; and such an organization of those parts as is �t to receive and distribute nourishment,

so as to continue and frame the wood, bark, and leaves, &c., of an oak, in which consists the vegetable life. That being then

one plant which has such an organization of parts in one coherent body, partaking of one common life, it continues to be

the same plant as long as it partakes of the same life, though that life be communicated to new particles of matter vitally

united to the living plant, in a like continued organization conformable to that sort of plants. For this organization, being at

any one instant in any one collection of matter, is in that particular concrete distinguished from all other, and is that

individual life, which existing constantly from that moment both forwards and backwards, in the same continuity of

insensibly succeeding parts united to the living body of the plant, it has that identity which makes the same plant, and all

the parts of it, parts of the same plant, during all the time that they exist united in that continued organization, which is �t

to convey that common life to all the parts so united.

5. Identity of animals. The case is not so much different in brutes but that any one may hence see what makes an animal

and continues it the same. Something we have like this in machines, and may serve to illustrate it. For example, what is a

watch? It is plain it is nothing but a �t organization or construction of parts to a certain end, which, when a suf�cient force

is added to it, it is capable to attain. If we would suppose this machine one continued body, all whose organized parts were

repaired, increased, or diminished by a constant addition or separation of insensible parts, with one common life, we

should have something very much like the body of an animal; with this difference, That, in an animal the �tness of the

organization, and the motion wherein life consists, begin together, the motion coming from within; but in machines the

force coming sensibly from without, is often away when the organ is in order, and well �tted to receive it.

6. The identity of man. This also shows wherein the identity of the same man consists; viz. in nothing but a participation of

the same continued life, by constantly �eeting particles of matter, in succession vitally united to the same organized body.

He that shall place the identity of man in anything else, but, like that of other animals, in one �tly organized body, taken in

any one instant, and from thence continued, under one organization of life, in several successively �eeting particles of

matter united to it, will �nd it hard to make an embryo, one of years, mad and sober, the same man, by any supposition,

that will not make it possible for Seth, Ismael, Socrates, Pilate, St. Austin, and Caesar Borgia, to be the same man. For if the

identity of soul alone makes the same man; and there be nothing in the nature of matter why the same individual spirit

may not be united to different bodies, it will be possible that those men, living in distant ages, and of different tempers,

may have been the same man: which way of speaking must be from a very strange use of the word man, applied to an idea

out of which body and shape are excluded. And that way of speaking would agree yet worse with the notions of those

philosophers who allow of transmigration, and are of opinion that the souls of men may, for their miscarriages, be

detruded into the bodies of beasts, as �t habitations, with organs suited to the satisfaction of their brutal inclinations. But

yet I think nobody, could he be sure that the soul of Heliogabalus were in one of his hogs, would yet say that hog were a

man or Heliogabalus.

Check Your Answer

The identity of the same man consists in two things of the same kind should exist in the same place at the same time

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7. Idea of identity suited to the idea it is applied to. It is not therefore unity of substance that comprehends all sorts of

identity, or will determine it in every case; but to conceive and judge of it aright, we must consider what idea the word it is

applied to stands for: it being one thing to be the same substance, another the same man, and a third the same person, if

person, man, and substance, are three names standing for three different ideas;- for such as is the idea belonging to that

name, such must be the identity; which, if it had been a little more carefully attended to, would possibly have prevented a

great deal of that confusion which often occurs about this matter, with no small seeming dif�culties, especially concerning

personal identity, which therefore we shall in the next place a little consider.

8. Same man. An animal is a living organized body; and consequently the same animal, as we have observed, is the same

continued life communicated to different particles of matter, as they happen successively to be united to that organized

living body. And whatever is talked of other de�nitions, ingenious observation puts it past doubt, that the idea in our

minds, of which the sound man in our mouths is the sign, is nothing else but of an animal of such a certain form. Since I

think I may be con�dent, that, whoever should see a creature of his own shape or make, though it had no more reason all

its life than a cat or a parrot, would call him still a man; or whoever should hear a cat or a parrot discourse, reason, and

philosophize, would call or think it nothing but a cat or a parrot; and say, the one was a dull irrational man, and the other a

very intelligent rational parrot. A relation we have in an author of great note, is suf�cient to countenance the supposition

of a rational parrot.

His words are: "I had a mind to know, from Prince Maurice's own mouth, the account of a common, but much credited

story, that I had heard so often from many others, of an old parrot he had in Brazil, during his government there, that

spoke, and asked, and answered common questions, like a reasonable creature: so that those of his train there generally

concluded it to be witchery or possession; and one of his chaplains, who lived long afterwards in Holland, would never

from that time endure a parrot, but said they all had a devil in them. I had heard many particulars of this story, and as

severed by people hard to be discredited, which made me ask Prince Maurice what there was of it. He said, with his usual

plainness and dryness in talk, there was something true, but a great deal false of what had been reported. I desired to

know of him what there was of the �rst. He told me short and coldly, that he had heard of such an old parrot when he had

been at Brazil; and though he believed nothing of it, and it was a good way off, yet he had so much curiosity as to send for

it: that it was a very great and a very old one; and when it came �rst into the room where the prince was, with a great

many Dutchmen about him, it said presently, What a company of white men are here! They asked it, what it thought that

man was, pointing to the prince. It answered, Some General or other. When they brought it close to him, he asked it, D'ou

venez-vous? It answered, De Marinnan. The Prince, A qui estes-vous? The Parrot, A un Portugais. The Prince, Que fais-tu

la? Parrot, Je garde les poulles. The Prince laughed, and said, Vous gardez les poulles? The Parrot answered, Oui, moi; et je

scai bien faire; and made the chuck four or �ve times that people use to make to chickens when they call them. I set down

the words of this worthy dialogue in French, just as Prince Maurice said them to me. I asked him in what language the

parrot spoke, and he said in Brazilian. I asked whether he understood Brazilian; he said No, but he had taken care to have

two interpreters by him, the one a Dutchman that spoke Brazilian, and the other a Brazilian that spoke Dutch; that he

asked them separately and privately, and both of them agreed in telling him just the same thing that the parrot had said. I

could not but tell this odd story, because it is so much out of the way, and from the �rst hand, and what may pass for a

good one; for I dare say this Prince at least believed himself in all he told me, having ever passed for a very honest and

pious man: I leave it to naturalists to reason, and to other men to believe, as they please upon it; however, it is not,

perhaps, amiss to relieve or enliven a busy scene sometimes with such digressions, whether to the purpose or no."

I have taken care that the reader should have the story at large in the author's own words, because he seems to me not to

have thought it incredible; for it cannot be imagined that so able a man as he, who had suf�ciency enough to warrant all

the testimonies he gives of himself, should take so much pains, in a place where it had nothing to do, to pin so close, not

only on a man whom he mentions as his friend, but on a Prince in whom he acknowledges very great honesty and piety, a

story which, if he himself thought incredible, he could not but also think ridiculous. The Prince, it is plain, who vouches this

story, and our author, who relates it from him, both of them call this talker a parrot: and I ask any one else who thinks such

a story �t to be told, whether, if this parrot, and all of its kind, had always talked, as we have a prince's word for it this one

did,- whether, I say, they would not have passed for a race of rational animals; but yet, whether, for all that, they would

(a) the same continued life

(b) constantly �eeting particles of matter

(c) the same organized body

(d) all of the above in combination

The correct answer is (d) all of the above in combination.

This also shows wherein the identity of the same man consists; viz. in nothing but a participation of the same

continued life, by constantly �eeting particles of matter, in succession vitally united to the same organized body.

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have been allowed to be men, and not parrots? For I presume it is not the idea of a thinking or rational being alone that

makes the idea of a man in most people's sense: but of a body, so and so shaped, joined to it: and if that be the idea of a

man, the same successive body not shifted all at once, must, as well as the same immaterial spirit, go to the making of the

same man.

9. Personal identity. This being premised, to �nd wherein personal identity consists, we must consider what person

stands for;- which, I think, is a thinking intelligent being, that has reason and re�ection, and can consider itself as itself, the

same thinking thing, in different times and places; which it does only by that consciousness which is inseparable from

thinking, and, as it seems to me, essential to it: it being impossible for any one to perceive without perceiving that he does

perceive. When we see, hear, smell, taste, feel, meditate, or will anything, we know that we do so. Thus it is always as to

our present sensations and perceptions: and by this every one is to himself that which he calls self:- it not being

considered, in this case, whether the same self be continued in the same or divers substances. For, since consciousness

always accompanies thinking, and it is that which makes every one to be what he calls self, and thereby distinguishes

himself from all other thinking things, in this alone consists personal identity, i.e. the sameness of a rational being: and as

far as this consciousness can be extended backwards to any past action or thought, so far reaches the identity of that

person; it is the same self now it was then; and it is by the same self with this present one that now re�ects on it, that that

action was done.

10. Consciousness makes personal identity. But it is further inquired, whether it be the same identical substance. This

few would think they had reason to doubt of, if these perceptions, with their consciousness, always remained present in

the mind, whereby the same thinking thing would be always consciously present, and, as would be thought, evidently the

same to itself. But that which seems to make the dif�culty is this, that this consciousness being interrupted always by

forgetfulness, there being no moment of our lives wherein we have the whole train of all our past actions before our eyes

in one view, but even the best memories losing the sight of one part whilst they are viewing another; and we sometimes,

and that the greatest part of our lives, not re�ecting on our past selves, being intent on our present thoughts, and in sound

sleep having no thoughts at all, or at least none with that consciousness which remarks our waking thoughts,- Isay, in all

these cases, our consciousness being interrupted, and we losing the sight of our past selves, doubts are raised whether we

are the same thinking thing, i.e. the same substance or no. Which, however reasonable or unreasonable, concerns not

personal identity at all. The question being what makes the same person; and not whether it be the same identical

substance, which always thinks in the same person, which, in this case, matters not at all: different substances, by the

same consciousness (where they do partake in it) being united into one person, as well as different bodies by the same life

are united into one animal, whose identity is preserved in that change of substances by the unity of one continued life. For,

it being the same consciousness that makes a man be himself to himself, personal identity depends on that only, whether it

be annexed solely to one individual substance, or can be continued in a succession of several substances. Foras far as any

intelligent being can repeat the idea of any past action with the same consciousness it had of it at �rst, and with the same

consciousness it has of any present action; so far it is the same personal self For it is by the consciousness it has of its

present thoughts and actions, that it is self to itself now, and so will be the same self, as far as the same consciousness can

extend to actions past or to come. and would be by distance of time, or change of substance, no more two persons, than a

man be two men by wearing other clothes to-day than he did yesterday, with a long or a short sleep between: the same

consciousness uniting those distant actions into the same person, whatever substances contributed to their production.

11. Personal identity in change of substance. That this is so, we have some kind of evidence in our very bodies, all whose

particles, whilst vitally united to this same thinking conscious self, so that we feel when they are touched, and are affected

by, and conscious of good or harm that happens to them, as a part of ourselves; i.e. of our thinking conscious self. Thus, the

limbs of his body are to every one a part of Himself; he sympathizes and is concerned for them. Cut off a hand, and

thereby separate it from that consciousness he had of its heat, cold, and other affections, and it is then no longer a part of

that which is himself, any more than the remotest part of matter. Thus, we see the substance whereof personal self

consisted at one time may be varied at another, without the change of personal identity; there being no question about

the same person, though the limbs which but now were a part of it, be cut off.

12. Personality in change of substance. But the question is, Whether if the same substance which thinks be changed, it

can be the same person; or, remaining the same, it can be different persons?

And to this I answer: First, This can be no question at all to those who place thought in a purely material animal

constitution, void of an immaterial substance. For, whether their supposition be true or no, it is plain they conceive

personal identity preserved in something else than identity of substance; as animal identity is preserved in identity of life,

and not of substance. And therefore those who place thinking in an immaterial substance only, before they can come to

deal with these men, must show why personal identity cannot be preserved in the change of immaterial substances, or

variety of particular immaterial substances, as well as animal identity is preserved in the change of material substances, or

variety of particular bodies: unless they will say, it is one immaterial spirit that makes the same life in brutes, as it is one

immaterial spirit that makes the same person in men; which the Cartesians at least will not admit, for fear of making

brutes thinking things too.

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13. Whether in change of thinking substances there can be one person. But next, as to the �rst part of the question,

Whether, if the same thinking substance (supposing immaterial substances only to think) be changed, it can be the same

person? I answer, that cannot be resolved but by those who know what kind of substances they are that do think; and

whether the consciousness of past actions can be transferred from one thinking substance to another. I grant were the

same consciousness the same individual action it could not: but it being a present representation of a past action, why it

may not be possible, that that may be represented to the mind to have been which really never was, will remain to be

shown. And therefore how far the consciousness of past actions is annexed to any individual agent, so that another cannot

possibly have it, will be hard for us to determine, till we know what kind of action it is that cannot be done without a re�ex

act of perception accompanying it, and how performed by thinking substances, who cannot think without being conscious

of it. But that which we call the same consciousness, not being the same individual act, why one intellectual substance may

not have represented to it, as done by itself, what it never did, and was perhaps done by some other agent- why, I say, such

a representation may not possibly be without reality of matter of fact, as well as several representations in dreams are,

which yet whilst dreaming we take for true- will be dif�cult to conclude from the nature of things. And that it never is so,

will by us, till we have clearer views of the nature of thinking substances, be best resolved into the goodness of God; who,

as far as the happiness or misery of any of his sensible creatures is concerned in it, will not, by a fatal error of theirs,

transfer from one to another that consciousness which draws reward or punishment with it. How far this may be an

argument against those who would place thinking in a system of �eeting animal spirits, I leave to be considered. But yet, to

return to the question before us, it must be allowed, that, if the same consciousness (which, as has been shown, is quite a

different thing from the same numerical �gure or motion in body) can be transferred from one thinking substance to

another, it will be possible that two thinking substances may make but one person. For the same consciousness being

preserved, whether in the same or different substances, the personal identity is preserved.

14. Whether, the same immaterial substance remaining, there can be two persons. As to the second part of the question,

Whether the same immaterial substance remaining, there may be two distinct persons; which question seems to me to be

built on this,- Whether the same immaterial being, being conscious of the action of its past duration, may be wholly

stripped of all the consciousness of its past existence, and lose it beyond the power of ever retrieving it again: and so as it

were beginning a new account from a new period, have a consciousness that cannot reach beyond this new state. All those

who hold pre-existence are evidently of this mind; since they allow the soul to have no remaining consciousness of what it

did in that pre-existent state, either wholly separate from body, or informing any other body; and if they should not, it is

plain experience would be against them. So that personal identity, reaching no further than consciousness reaches, a pre-

existent spirit not having continued so many ages in a state of silence, must needs make different persons. Suppose a

Christian Platonist or a Pythagorean should, upon God's having ended all his works of creation the seventh day, think his

soul hath existed ever since; and should imagine it has revolved in several human bodies; as I once met with one, who was

persuaded his had been the soul of Socrates (how reasonably I will not dispute; this I know, that in the post he �lled, which

was no inconsiderable one, he passed for a very rational man, and the press has shown that he wanted not parts or

learning;)- would any one say, that he, being not conscious of any of Socrates's actions or thoughts, could be the same

person with Socrates? Let any one re�ect upon himself, and conclude that he has in himself an immaterial spirit, which is

that which thinks in him, and, in the constant change of his body keeps him the same: and is that which he calls himself: let

him also suppose it to be the same soul that was in Nestor or Thersites, at the siege of Troy, (for souls being, as far as we

know anything of them, in their nature indifferent to any parcel of matter, the supposition has no apparent absurdity in it),

which it may have been, as well as it is now the soul of any other man: but he now having no consciousness of any of the

actions either of Nestor or Thersites, does or can he conceive himself the same person with either of them? Can he be

concerned in either of their actions? attribute them to himself, or think them his own, more than the actions of any other

men that ever existed? So that this consciousness, not reaching to any of the actions of either of those men, he is no more

one self with either of them than if the soul or immaterial spirit that now informs him had been created, and began to

exist, when it began to inform his present body; though it were never so true, that the same spirit that informed Nestor's

or Thersites' body were numerically the same that now informs his. For this would no more make him the same person

with Nestor, than if some of the particles of matter that were once a part of Nestor were now a part of this man; the same

immaterial substance, without the same consciousness, no more making the same person, by being united to any body,

than the same particle of matter, without consciousness, united to any body, makes the same person. But let him once �nd

himself conscious of any of the actions of Nestor, he then �nds himself the same person with Nestor.

15. The body, as well as the soul, goes to the making of a man. And thus may we be able, without any dif�culty, to

conceive the same person at the resurrection, though in a body not exactly in make or parts the same which he had here,-

the same consciousness going along with the soul that inhabits it. But yet the soul alone, in the change of bodies, would

scarce to any one but to him that makes the soul the man, be enough to make the same man. For should the soul of a

prince, carrying with it the consciousness of the prince's past life, enter and inform the body of a cobbler, as soon as

deserted by his own soul, every one sees he would be the same person with the prince, accountable only for the prince's

actions: but who would say it was the same man? The body too goes to the making the man, and would, I guess, to

everybody determine the man in this case, wherein the soul, with all its princely thoughts about it, would not make

another man: but he would be the same cobbler to every one besides himself. I know that, in the ordinary way of speaking,

the same person, and the same man, stand for one and the same thing. And indeed every one will always have a liberty to

speak as he pleases, and to apply what articulate sounds to what ideas he thinks �t, and change them as often as he

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pleases. But yet, when we will inquire what makes the same spirit, man, or person, we must �x the ideas of spirit, man, or

person in our minds; and having resolved with ourselves what we mean by them, it will not be hard to determine, in either

of them, or the like, when it is the same, and when not.

16. Consciousness alone unites actions into the same person. But though the same immaterial substance or soul does

not alone, wherever it be, and in whatsoever state, make the same man; yet it is plain, consciousness, as far as ever it can

be extended- should it be to ages past- unites existences and actions very remote in time into the same person, as well as

it does the existences and actions of the immediately preceding moment: so that whatever has the consciousness of

present and past actions, is the same person to whom they both belong. Had I the same consciousness that I saw the ark

and Noah's �ood, as that I saw an over�owing of the Thames last winter, or as that I write now, I could no more doubt that

I who write this now, that saw' the Thames over�owed last winter, and that viewed the �ood at the general deluge, was

the same self,- place that self in what substance you please- than that I who write this am the same myself now whilst I

write (whether I consist of all the same substance, material or immaterial, or no)that I was yesterday. For as to this point of

being the same self, it matters not whether this present self be made up of the same or other substances- I being as much

concerned, and as justly accountable for any action that was done a thousand years since, appropriated to me now by this

self-consciousness, as I am for what I did the last moment.

17. Self depends on consciousness, not on substance. Self is that conscious thinking thing,-whatever substance made up

of, (whether spiritual or material, simple or compounded, it matters not)- which is sensible or conscious of pleasure and

pain, capable of happiness or misery, and so is concerned for itself, as far as that consciousness extends. Thus every one

�nds that, whilst comprehended under that consciousness, the little �nger is as much a part of himself as what is most so.

Upon separation of this little �nger, should this consciousness go along with the little �nger, and leave the rest of the body,

it is evident the little �nger would be the person, the same person; and self then would have nothing to do with the rest of

the body. As in this case it is the consciousness that goes along with the substance, when one part is separate from

another, which makes the same person, and constitutes this inseparable self: so it is in reference to substances remote in

time. That with which the consciousness of this present thinking thing can join itself, makes the same person, and is one

self with it, and with nothing else; and so attributes to itself, and owns all the actions of that thing, as its own, as far as that

consciousness reaches, and no further; as every one who re�ects will perceive.

18. Persons, not substances, the objects of reward and punishment. In this personal identity is founded all the right and

justice of reward and punishment; happiness and misery being that for which every one is concerned for himself, and not

mattering what becomes of any substance, not joined to, or affected with that consciousness. For, as it is evident in the

instance I gave but now, if the consciousness went along with the little �nger when it was cut off, that would be the same

self which was concerned for the whole body yesterday, as making part of itself, whose actions then it cannot but admit as

its own now. Though, if the same body should still live, and immediately from the separation of the little �nger have its

own peculiar consciousness, whereof the little �nger knew nothing, it would not at all be concerned for it, as a part of

itself, or could own any of its actions, or have any of them imputed to him.

19. Which shows wherein personal identity consists. This may show us wherein personal identity consists: not in the

identity of substance, but, as I have said, in the identity of consciousness, wherein if Socrates and the present mayor of

Queinborough agree, they are the same person: if the same Socrates waking and sleeping do not partake of the same

consciousness, Socrates waking and sleeping is not the same person. And to punish Socrates waking for what sleeping

Socrates thought, and waking Socrates was never conscious of, would be no more of right, than to punish one twin for

what his brother-twin did, whereof he knew nothing, because their outsides were so like, that they could not be

distinguished; for such twins have been seen.

20. Absolute oblivion separates what is thus forgotten from the person, but not from the man. But yet possibly it will

still be objected,- Suppose I wholly lose the memory of some parts of my life, beyond a possibility of retrieving them, so

that perhaps I shall never be conscious of them again; yet am I not the same person that did those actions, had those

thoughts that I once was conscious of, though I have now forgot them? To which I answer, that we must here take notice

what the word I is applied to; which, in this case, is the man only. And the same man being presumed to be the same

person, I is easily here supposed to stand also for the same person. But if it be possible for the same man to have distinct

incommunicable consciousness at different times, it is past doubt the same man would at different times make different

persons; which, we see, is the sense of mankind in the solemnest declaration of their opinions, human laws not punishing

the mad man for the sober man's actions, nor the sober man for what the mad man did,- thereby making them two

persons: which is somewhat explained by our way of speaking in English when we say such an one is "not himself," or is

"beside himself"; in which phrases it is insinuated, as if those who now, or at least �rst used them, thought that self was

changed; the selfsame person was no longer in that man.

Check Your Answer

According to Locke, if someone completely loses their memory, they become a distinctly different:

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21. Difference between identity of man and of person. But yet it is hard to conceive that Socrates, the same individual

man, should be two persons. To help us a little in this, we must consider what is meant by Socrates, or the same individual

man.

First, it must be either the same individual, immaterial, thinking substance; in short, the same numerical soul, and nothing

else.

Secondly, or the same animal, without any regard to an immaterial soul.

Thirdly, or the same immaterial spirit united to the same animal. Now, take which of these suppositions you please, it is

impossible to make personal identity to consist in anything but consciousness; or reach any further than that does.

For, by the �rst of them, it must be allowed possible that a man born of different women, and in distant times, may be the

same man. A way of speaking which, whoever admits, must allow it possible for the same man to be two distinct persons,

as any two that have lived in different ages without the knowledge of one another's thoughts.

By the second and third, Socrates, in this life and after it, cannot be the same man any way, but by the same consciousness;

and so making human identity to consist in the same thing wherein we place personal identity, there will be no dif�culty to

allow the same man to be the same person. But then they who place human identity in consciousness only, and not in

something else, must consider how they will make the infant Socrates the same man with Socrates after the resurrection.

But whatsoever to some men makes a man, and consequently the same individual man, wherein perhaps few are agreed,

personal identity can by us be placed in nothing but consciousness, (which is that alone which makes what we call self,)

without involving us in great absurdities.

22. But is not a man drunk and sober the same person? why else is he punished for the fact he commits when drunk,

though he be never afterwards conscious of it? Just as much the same person as a man that walks, and does other things in

his sleep, is the same person, and is answerable for any mischief he shall do in it. Human laws punish both, with a justice

suitable to their way of knowledge;- because, in these cases, they cannot distinguish certainly what is real, what

counterfeit: and so the ignorance in drunkenness or sleep is not admitted as a plea. For, though punishment be annexed to

personality, and personality to consciousness, and the drunkard perhaps be not conscious of what he did, yet human

judicatures justly punish him; because the fact is proved against him, but want of consciousness cannot be proved for him.

But in the Great Day, wherein the secrets of all hearts shall be laid open, it may be reasonable to think, no one shall be

made to answer for what he knows nothing of, but shall receive his doom, his conscience accusing or excusing him.

23. Consciousness alone unites remote existences into one person. Nothing but consciousness can unite remote

existences into the same person: the identity of substance will not do it; for whatever substance there is, however framed,

without consciousness there is no person: and a carcass may be a person, as well as any sort of substance be so, without

consciousness.

Could we suppose two distinct incommunicable consciousnesses acting the same body, the one constantly by day, the

other by night; and, on the other side, the same consciousness, acting by intervals, two distinct bodies: I ask, in the �rst

case, whether the day and the night- man would not be two as distinct persons as Socrates and Plato? And whether, in the

second case, there would not be one person in two distinct bodies, as much as one man is the same in two distinct

clothings? Nor is it at all material to say, that this same, and this distinct consciousness, in the cases above mentioned, is

owing to the same and distinct immaterial substances, bringing it with them to those bodies; which, whether true or no,

alters not the case: since it is evident the personal identity would equally be determined by the consciousness, whether

that consciousness were annexed to some individual immaterial substance or no. For, granting that the thinking substance

in man must be necessarily supposed immaterial, it is evident that immaterial thinking thing may sometimes part with its

past consciousness, and be restored to it again: as appears in the forgetfulness men often have of their past actions; and

the mind many times recovers the memory of a past consciousness, which it had lost for twenty years together. Make

(a) will

(b) body

(c) person

(d) substance

The correct answer is (c) person.

But if it be possible for the same man to have distinct incommunicable consciousness at different times, it is past

doubt the same man would at different times make different persons;

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these intervals of memory and forgetfulness to take their turns regularly by day and night, and you have two persons with

the same immaterial spirit, as much as in the former instance two persons with the same body. So that self is not

determined by identity or diversity of substance, which it cannot be sure of, but only by identity of consciousness.

24. Not the substance with which the consciousness may be united. Indeed it may conceive the substance whereof it is

now made up to have existed formerly, united in the same conscious being: but, consciousness removed, that substance is

no more itself, or makes no more a part of it, than any other substance; as is evident in the instance we have already given

of a limb cut off, of whose heat, or cold, or other affections, having no longer any consciousness, it is no more of a man's

self than any other matter of the universe. In like manner it will be in reference to any immaterial substance, which is void

of that consciousness whereby I am myself to myself: if there be any part of its existence which I cannot upon recollection

join with that present consciousness whereby I am now myself, it is, in that part of its existence, no more myself than any

other immaterial being. For, whatsoever any substance has thought or done, which I cannot recollect, and by my

consciousness make my own thought and action, it will no more belong to me, whether a part of me thought or did it, than

if it had been thought or done by any other immaterial being anywhere existing. 

25. Consciousness unites substances, material or spiritual, with the same personality. I agree, the more probable

opinion is, that this consciousness is annexed to, and the affection of, one individual immaterial substance.

But let men, according to their diverse hypotheses, resolve of that as they please. This every intelligent being, sensible of

happiness or misery, must grant- that there is something that is himself, that he is concerned for, and would have happy;

that this self has existed in a continued duration more than one instant, and therefore it is possible may exist, as it has

done, months and years to come, without any certain bounds to be set to its duration; and may be the same self, by the

same consciousness continued on for the future. And thus, by this consciousness he �nds himself to be the same self

which did such and such an action some years since, by which he comes to be happy or miserable now. In all which account

of self, the same numerical substance is not considered as making the same self, but the same continued consciousness, in

which several substances may have been united, and again separated from it, which, whilst they continued in a vital union

with that wherein this consciousness then resided, made a part of that same self. Thus any part of our bodies, vitally

united to that which is conscious in us, makes a part of ourselves: but upon separation from the vital union by which that

consciousness is communicated, that which a moment since was part of ourselves, is now no more so than a part of

another man's self is a part of me: and it is not impossible but in a little time may become a real part of another person.

And so we have the same numerical substance become a part of two different persons; and the same person preserved

under the change of various substances. Could we suppose any spirit wholly stripped of all its memory or consciousness of

past actions, as we �nd our minds always are of a great part of ours, and sometimes of them all; the union or separation of

such a spiritual substance would make no variation of personal identity, any more than that of any particle of matter does.

Any substance vitally united to the present thinking being is a part of that very same self which now is; anything united to

it by a consciousness of former actions, makes also a part of the same self, which is the same both then and now.

26."Person" a forensic term. Person, as I take it, is the name for this self. Wherever a man �nds what he calls himself,

there, I think, another may say is the same person. It is a forensic term, appropriating actions and their merit; and so

belongs only to intelligent agents, capable of a law, and happiness, and misery. This personality extends itself beyond

present existence to what is past, only by consciousness,- whereby it becomes concerned and accountable; owns and

imputes to itself past actions, just upon the same ground and for the same reason as it does the present. All which is

founded in a concern for happiness, the unavoidable concomitant of consciousness; that which is conscious of pleasure

and pain, desiring that that self that is conscious should be happy. And therefore whatever past actions it cannot reconcile

or appropriate to that present self by consciousness, it can be no more concerned in than if they had never been done: and

to receive pleasure or pain, i.e. reward or punishment, on the account of any such action, is all one as to be made happy or

miserable in its �rst being, without any demerit at all. For, supposing a man punished now for what he had done in another

life, whereof he could be made to have no consciousness at all, what difference is there between that punishment and

being created miserable? And therefore, conformable to this, the apostle tells us, that, at the great day, when every one

shall "receive according to his doings, the secrets of all hearts shall be laid open." The sentence shall be justi�ed by the

consciousness all persons shall have, that they themselves, in what bodies soever they appear, or what substances soever

that consciousness adheres to, are the same that committed those actions, and deserve that punishment for them.

Check Your Answer

Nothing but ___________ can unite remote existences into the same person.

(a) god

(b) consciousness

(c) substance

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27. Suppositions that look strange are pardonable in our ignorance. I am apt enough to think I have, in treating of this

subject, made some suppositions that will look strange to some readers, and possibly they are so in themselves. But yet, I

think they are such as are pardonable, in this ignorance we are in of the nature of that thinking thing that is in us, and

which we look on as ourselves. Did we know what it was, or how it was tied to a certain system of �eeting animal spirits;

or whether it could or could not perform its operations of thinking and memory out of a body organized as ours is; and

whether it has pleased God that no one such spirit shall ever be united to any but one such body, upon the right

constitution of whose organs its memory should depend; we might see the absurdity of some of those suppositions I have

made. But taking, as we ordinarily now do (in the dark concerning these matters), the soul of a man for an immaterial

substance, independent from matter, and indifferent alike to it all; there can, from the nature of things, be no absurdity at

all to suppose that the same soul may at different times be united to different bodies, and with them make up for that time

one man: as well as we suppose a part of a sheep's body yesterday should be a part of a man's body to-morrow, and in that

union make a vital part of Meliboeus himself, as well as it did of his ram.

28. The dif�culty from ill use of names. To conclude: Whatever substance begins to exist, it must, during its existence,

necessarily be the same: whatever compositions of substances begin to exist, during the union of those substances, the

concrete must be the same: whatsoever mode begins to exist, during its existence it is the same: and so if the composition

be of distinct substances and different modes, the same rule holds. Whereby it will appear, that the dif�culty or obscurity

that has been about this matter rather rises from the names ill-used, than from any obscurity in things themselves. For

whatever makes the speci�c idea to which the name is applied, if that idea be steadily kept to, the distinction of anything

into the same and divers will easily be conceived, and there can arise no doubt about it.

29. Continuance of that which we have made to he our complex idea of man makes the same man. For, supposing a

rational spirit be the idea of a man, it is easy to know what is the same man, viz. the same spirit- whether separate or in a

body- will be the same man. Supposing a rational spirit vitally united to a body of a certain conformation of parts to make a

man; whilst that rational spirit, with that vital conformation of parts, though continued in a �eeting successive body,

remains, it will be the same man. But if to any one the idea of a man be but the vital union of parts in a certain shape; as

long as that vital union and shape remain in a concrete, no otherwise the same but by a continued succession of �eeting

particles, it will be the same man. For, whatever be the composition whereof the complex idea is made, whenever

existence makes it one particular thing under any denomination the same existence continued preserves it the same

individual under the same denomination.

(d) perception

The correct answer is (b) consciousness.

Consciousness unites substances, material or spiritual, with the same personality. I agree, the more probable opinion

is, that this consciousness is annexed to, and the affection of, one individual immaterial substance.

Check Your Answer

For Locke, personal identity preserved in something else than identity of substance.

(a) True

(b) False

But it may be said, perhaps, that, although the senses occasionally mislead us respecting minute objects, and such as

are so far removed from us as to be beyond the reach of close observation, there are yet many other of their

informations (presentations), of the truth of which it is manifestly impossible to doubt; as for example, that I am in

this place, seated by the �re, clothed in a winter dressing gown, that I hold in my hands this piece of paper, with other

intimations of the same nature.

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For additional practice testing your knowledge, feel free to complete the Unit 2 Self Assessment - Locke (not graded) self assessment.