Locke and Personal Identity

Abstract

John Locke discusses the idea of a distinct self and the continuation of consciousness after death. The definition of a personal identity across time is provided. Insofar as it is feasible, such a criteria describes the requirements that must be met in order for people to survive. According to John Locke, psychological continuity determines one's personal identity. He believed that the foundation of one's personal identity, or "self," was awareness, namely recollection, rather than the substance of either the soul or the body. We sustain in this essay, that the criterion of personal identity for Locke is not memory but consciousness. Therefore, for Locke, memory is the power of knowledge of the same consciousness.