Personal Identity, Existence and What Matters
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It will be useful to begin with an extensive introduction to personhood in general. Like many other terms, philosophers oftentimes use the word 'person' differently from the colloquial use of the word. This colloquial use is usually meant to be singular for 'people', or to mean 'a human being'. Although philosophers do use the word in these ways, they also use it in yet another way. Our first question, then, I will call The Personhood Question: "What is it to be a person?" That is, what makes persons different from non-persons? What do persons have that non-persons do not have? Are human being...
It will be useful to begin with an extensive introduction to personhood in general. Like many other terms, philosophers oftentimes use the word 'person' differently from the colloquial use of the word. This colloquial use is usually meant to be singular for 'people', or to mean 'a human being'. Although philosophers do use the word in these ways, they also use it in yet another way. Our first question, then, I will call The Personhood Question: "What is it to be a person?" That is, what makes persons different from non-persons? What do persons have that non-persons do not have? Are human beings the only candidates for persons or are there (or could there be) nonhuman persons? Many philosophers throughout history have discussed these questions and suggested answers to them. A common trend from the Early Modern Period of Western philosophy (specifically Descartes and Locke) was to favor the mental aspect as essential to personhood. For Descartes, you are your mind. That is, you are an immaterial substance that thinks. The Cartesian view of personhood is thus associated with the person's soul. Locke similarly described a person as, "a thinking intelligent being, that has reason and reflection, and can consider itself as itself, the same thinking thing, in different times and places."1 According to him, you are a conscious being that persists by means of continued consciousness and memory. For both Descartes and Locke, a person is a conscious agent capable of interacting with and experiencing the world and generating plans or desires upon which to act.
