Ralph Aaron M.

Panganiban MEE12 August 29, 2019

John Locke: Perspective on One’s Self

John Locke’s perspective on one’s self and account of personal identity can be found in
his controversial and influential work, An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, written in
the 1960s. He is known for tabula rasa which sets out the case that the human mind at birth is a
complete, but receptive, blank slate upon which experience imprints knowledge. But apart from
this, he gave emphasis to personal identity or “self” on a psychological criterion and is a matter
of psychological continuity. The same consciousness is required for being the same person. A
person, he says, is “a thinking intelligent being, that has reason and reflection, and can consider
itself as itself, the same thinking thing in different times and places, which it does through only
by that consciousness which is inseparable from thinking, and as seems to me essential to it.” He
considered personal identity (or the self) to be founded on consciousness (viz. memory), and not
on the substance of either the soul or the body. John Locke proposes that one's personal identity
extends only so far as their own consciousness. The connection between consciousness and
memory in Locke’s theory has earned it the title of the "memory theory of personal identity."
There is wide agreement, however, that Locke’s theory of personal identity is meant to
complement his moral and theological commitments to a system of divine punishment and
reward in an afterlife.

Discovering and understanding one’s self and personal identity are both difficult things to
do. In terms of the physical self, almost all occurrences can be supported and proven by facts and
science. But the self, philosophically, is a phenomenon that many philosophers and even
common people seek to understand. I chose to research on John Locke’s perspective on one’s
self because of his belief dubbed as the tabula rasa, which stuck to me since I learned it from my
last philosophy class. According to Locke, humans are born with a blank slate and the person can
be made through his experiences. What makes a person in the present is the continuation of
consciousness, not because of the physical body. It means that Locke believes that a human is
made up of different parts. A person refers to the conscious thinking self, man refers to a
physical entity and substance is an unchanging thing that can be material or immaterial. A
person’s consciousness or what he calls, continuity of memory, is the definition of who we are,
rather than a soul or body. As I reflect on it, the body is just a physical container of who we
really are, shaped by our experiences and memories, resulting to our consciousness. Like in his
example of the severed finger, a person undergoes physical changes in a lifetime, and when these
changes happen, it does not mean that you are a different person. The memories serve as a
bridge, a connection between our past, present and future selves. This is what Locke calls a
connected consciousness. Though this theory of Locke has many different interpretations, I can
only understand it by reflecting on myself and somehow it makes sense. I am what I am because
of my experiences and memories. As a baby or a kid, I might have some memories that I cannot
remember now but what I learned from those stays in my actions and in my decisions. I might
not remember the exact time I learned how to write but writing is something I do in a daily basis
now, making it part of my consciousness. Personal identity, according to Locke, is having the
same consciousness, independent of the body and soul.

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Fisher, A. (2014, July 31). Introduction to John Locke's Theory of Personal Identity, with
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Nimbalkar N., (2011), John Locke on Personal Identity. In: Brain, Mind and Consciousness: An
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Philosopher, T. S. (1970, January 1). The Self and Personal Identity: John Locke. Retrieved from
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Piccirillo, & A, R. (2010, August 1). The Lockean Memory Theory of Personal Identity:
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Weinberg, S. (2011). Locke on Personal Identity. Philosophy Compass, 6.