John Locke offers a unique perspective on what constitutes a person’s identity. His view focuses on an essential distinction between an individual being the same man and an individual being the same person. For Locke to say someone is the same man is to say that they simply possess the same body. The implication of this is that an individual will be the same man from the time they are born until the time they die. Although, Locke was unaware of DNA during his lifetime he would likely use such a constant as a means by identifying the same man over time. What Locke considers to be a person is not constituted by anything physical. Instead, Locke proposes the idea that memory of past experiences establishes personal identity. Consequently,
