Personal identity
In
philosophy, the issue of
personal identity concerns the conditions under which a person at one time is the same
person at another time. An analysis of personal identity provides a set of necessary and sufficient conditions for the identity of the person over time. This concept of personal identity is sometimes referred to as the
diachronic problem of personal identity. It contrasts with the
synchronic problem, which is the question of what constitutes personhood at a time - what kind of thing is a person?
John Locke considered personal identity (or the
self) to be founded on
consciousness, and not on the
substance of either the
soul or or the
body (
see Consciousness as the basis of personal identity (John Locke)).
The problem of personal identity is at the center of discussions about survival of death and immortality. In order to survive death, there has to be a person after death who is the same person as the person who died. So in virtue of what is the post-death individual the same person as the earlier temporal stage of the person who it is claimed is survived in the post-death individual?
There have been many thought experiments about personal identity, for example, "
swamp man".
*
Daniel Dennett,
Where am I?*
Derek Parfit,
Reasons and Persons, part 3.
*
Bernard Williams,
The Self and the Future, in
Philosophical Review 79.
*
Personal life*
Ship of Theseus (about identity of things generally, not only of persons)
*
John Locke,
Of Ideas of Identity and Diversity* E.J.Lowe, A Survey of Metaphysics, chapters 2,3, 4.
* J.Kim & E.Sosa â€" A Companion to Metaphysics, pg380, persons and personal identity.
*
Self (philosophy)*
Identity and change*
A Dialogue on Personal Identity and Immortality*
Mind/brain identity*
Personally identifiable information*
Privacy*
Consciousness as the basis of personal identity (John Locke)*
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry on personal identity*
Phineas Parkhurst Quimby on Personal Identity
