John Locke's Philosophy: Identity and Diversity

• John Locke (1632-1704) was an English philosopher and medical doctor.
• His greatest work is An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1689), about the limits of human knowledge.
• Two Treatises of Government (1689) and Letter Concerning Toleration (1689) made contributions to political philosophy.
• The second Treatise gives a theory of legitimate government in terms of natural rights and the social contract.
• Locke's political views influenced the Founders of the United States, especially Thomas Jefferson.

Identity and Diversity

• An atom existing in a determined time and place is the same with itself.
• If two or more atoms join into one mass, each atom remains the same.
• If an atom is added or removed, it's no longer the same mass.
• Living creatures' identity goes beyond the mass of particles.
• The identity of an oak remains the same, even as it grows from a plant to a tree.
• Identity isn't applied to a mass of matter and a living body in the same way.
• The difference between an oak and a mass of matter is that the former has a disposition that constitutes the parts of an oak.
• A plant remains the same as long as it partakes in the same life, even if the matter is new.
• The identity of the same man consists in the participation of the same continued life.
• Personal identity consists of a thinking intelligent being that has reason and reflection.
• Humans can consider themselves the same thinking thing in different times and places.
• Consciousness is inseparable from thinking, and we perceive when we perceive.
• Consciousness accompanies thinking and distinguishes oneself from other thinking things.
• Personal identity is the sameness of a rational being, extending as far back as consciousness reaches.
• Consciousness can be interrupted by forgetfulness.
• Personal identity is not about the same substance.
• Personal identity depends on consciousness.
• Different substances can unite into one person through consciousness, like different bodies united by life into one animal.
• An intelligent being relating a past action with the same consciousness makes it the same personal self.
• The same consciousness unites distant actions into the same person.
• Bodies show evidence of this, with all particles united to a conscious self.
• One relates to their limbs as part of themselves.
• The substance of personal self can vary without changing personal identity.
• The question is whether a changed thinking substance can be the same person, or an unchanged substance can be different persons.
• The answer depends on how one defines thought.
• Personal identity is found in identity of life for animals, not identity of substance.
• The ability for consciousness of past actions to transfer from on thinking to another.
• With the same consciousness being shared across substances, personal identity is preserved.
• The same immaterial being cannot be stripped of all consciousness of its past.
• If the same soul was in Nestor or Thersites, does that mean they are the same person?
• The same immaterial substance without the same consciousness doesn't make the same person.

Consciousness

• Consciousness unites existences and actions remote in time into the same person.
• The person with consciousness of present and past actions is the same one to whom they both belong.
• Personal identity is not in the identity of substance, but in the identity of consciousness.
• It's not right to punish a waking Socrates for what a sleeping Socrates was never conscious of.
• If the same man has distinct, incommunicable consciousness at different times, they are different persons.
• Human laws don't punish a mad man for a sober man's actions.
• When someone is “not himself” it suggests that the self has changed.
• Drunk and sober, are they the same person?
• Human laws punish both the drunk and sleep walker, with a justice suitable to their way of knowledge.
• The Great Day will reveal if one knew nothing of, but shall receive his doom.
• Person is the name for "this self" which another may say is the same person.
• Person is a forensic term appropriating actions and their merit.
• Personality extends itself to the past by consciousness.
• This is founded in a concern for happiness.
• Anything that consciousness cannot reconcile with the present self is not a concern.
• Humans will receive according to his doings at the Great Day.
• They will justify that they deserve that punishment for them.