PP111 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Mental Substance, Microstructure, Reductio Ad Absurdum
Document Summary
Personal identity: why identtiy is relative", personal identity : locke, reid on locke. Identity conditions for non-human things : 2 kinds: masses of matter, the claim. A mass of matter is the same thing over time just insofar as its micro-structure remains fully intact: life forms, the claim. A life form is the same thing over time just insofar as it retains its functional integrity . Key innovator: john locke : 1632-1704, considered the greatest english philosopher. How is it that the adult can refer to the child as. 3 answers : what persists over time is the human . The problem (a. : we seem to be different than other life forms in that we think. The problem (b. : we have no experience of the soul. Crucial point on lockean ideas: every idea or perception comes with the flag, this is my experience , the claim. You are the totality of experiences you remember, nothing more, nothing less.
