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John Locke's Relational Account Of Personal Identity

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What does being the same person over time numerically (i.e. one-and-the-same) entail? Locke’s memory criterion seeks to answer this fundamental question of identity and thus provide an answer to what allows us as persons to continue to exist overtime. Locke’s account can be described as a “relational account” of identity because it holds that persons are the same at different times due to a relation between them – in this case consciousness (Shoemaker D, 2016). In this essay I will argue that Locke’s original memory criterion is the correct account of personal identity. To do this I will refer to the merits of Locke’s criterion as well as to various objections with two main objections being that identity seems to persist through loss of memory …show more content…
In order to understand this we must first look at what person stands for. Locke holds that persons are fundamentally their consciousness and as such, for there to be a person at a given time is for there to be a “thinking intelligent” substance that is able to reflect on itself- in other words a substance that possesses consciousness (YouTube, 2014). One might be tempted to ask but why does this relationship between sameness of consciousness and sameness of person hold? Why isn’t personal identity preserved in the sameness of names for example? (After all our names and surnames are used to identify us on our ID books for instance) The answer is simple; Locke supposes that consciousness (which can be equated to experiences- made up of thoughts actions and feelings (memories)) must always be accompanied by thinking because even at the most basic of levels it is virtually impossible for someone to think (be conscious) without recognizing that he does think (or is conscious) (Locke J, -). Simply put, when we experience something we know we are experiencing it and as such it is our present consciousness that makes us a ‘person’ and separates us from all other thinking things. This means that in …show more content…
Zalta (ed.), Available: http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2016/entries/identity-ethics/\
4) YouTube Video: PHILOSOPHY - History: Locke on Personal Identity, Part 2, (August 2014), Available:

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