Comparison Of John Locke And Thomas Reid On Personal Identity

Both John Locke and Thomas Reid make captivating remarks about personal identity and its ability to either span effortlessly through time or encounter instances where personal identity undergoes modification no longer allowing personal identity to be maintained through time. Locke offers an interesting perspective as he so eloquently cites what he believes the word person to signify and what he believes personal identity to be composed of, in this case consciousness or as Reid prefers to call it, memory. I somewhat agree with him as I believe personal identity is the combined collection of events, emotions, memories, and choices, etc. we as individuals have experienced and wish to experience, it is in a sense what we identify with. Furthermore, considering his thought experiment, the
For example, Locke introduces the idea that the cessation of consciousness is enough to infer that through the course of time, highly suggesting that change to personal identity does occur. That a moment of which one is unaware of or forgotten no longer pertains to one’s link of identity, therefore adjusting personal identity. It is ludicrous that forgetfulness of what one did two days prior is enough to justify we are not the same person we were two days ago. At this point I must concur with and rely on Reid’s criticism against Locke’s theory to generate my personal belief of the constant nature of personal identity. In my opinion personal identity is an ever- ongoing process, and personal identity is far more intricate than lying exclusively in memory. There may be instances when we do forget a certain event, but that does not mean it did not occur and took part in our identity. There are also times where we are “unconscious,” that then according to a Locke view would mean you are no longer who you were when you closed your eyes after you