7. Personal Identity

About this Lecture

Lecture

In this module, we look at some examples from Locke’s Essay and other, more recent philosophical works to consider the question: What constitutes personal identity over time? We explore Locke’s solution to the problem of personal identity and conclude the module by raising some objections to Locke’s solution.

Course

In this course, Dr Barnaby Walker (University of Warwick) explores the work of the seventeenth-century philosopher John Locke, particularly his writings on epistemology. We begin with a general overview of Locke’s Essay Concerning Human Understanding and its key themes, before moving on in the second and third module to Locke’s radical rejection of the concept of innate knowledge. We then think about the relationship in Locke’s theory between sense perception and the ideas created in the human mind in module four. The fifth module focuses on Locke’s distinction between primary and secondary qualities in material objects, while the sixth module explores in more detail how Locke thought human beings can acquire knowledge of the world through their senses. The seventh and final module concludes with a discussion of the problem of personal identity and Locke’s solution to this problem.

Lecturer

Dr Barney Walker is a Teaching Fellow in Philosophy at the University of Warwick. His research focuses on epistemology and philosophy of mind, especially with issues about enquiry, the value of knowledge, and the nature of belief.