Personal Identifier: C1888923 Joseph Murray

Part A (25% of the mark)

Answer the following questions by using no more than 350 words overall:

1. What do philosophers mean by ‘personal identity’?

The term personal identity is frequently used by philosophers when discussing what if
anything makes a person the same person they are today as they were yesterday
irrespective of changes over time.

2. What does Locke mean by ‘man’?

For Locke, a “man” is simply put a member of the human species, a “Homosapien”. Locke
uses the term man as others might use “mankind”, referring to either a man or a women.

3. Let us assume that a man committed a crime when he was twenty years old, and
now he is eighty years old. For Locke, under which circumstances can the eighty-
year-old man be said to be the same person as that who committed the crime?

Locke took the position that memory is the criterion of personal identity - and therefore of
moral responsibility - not physical continuity. Nigel Warburton uses a thought experiment
presented by John Locke, whereby a man by day and a man by night might inhabit the
same body but remain distinctly separate; stating that by using Locke’s logic it would be
wrong to punish the day man, for the night mans actions, until the individual remembers
the actions (Warburton, 2011, p22) and logically vice versa.

4. What does Locke mean when he says that ‘person’ is a ‘forensic’ term?
Locke makes a point that the term “person” is a forensic term, of which, relates to moral
and legal questions of approval or blame-worthiness. Meaning an individual is a being who
can be held morally responsible for their own actions, that can reason prudentially,
sufficiently care about the future, and is an intelligent being who has reflection and can
consider themselves the same individual over time

Word Count for Part A - 298 Words

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Personal Identifier: C1888923 Joseph Murray

Part B (essay, 75% of the mark)

Present one or more thought experiments either by John Locke, or based on his work.
What does Locke aim to show about personal identity? Is he successful?

In this short essay I am going to present thought experiments by the philosopher John
Locke; what Locke aimed to show about personal identity and whether he was successful
in doing so.

The first thought experiment being used in this essay - ‘The Day Man and The Night Man”.
The thought experiment goes, during the day, the day-man goes about his business,
thinks his own thought and so on; but during the night a completely distant consciousness
inhabits the same body. The night-man has a very different personality from the day-man;
neither know of the others existence and neither has access to the others thoughts or
feelings (Warburton, 2011, p21)

If the night-man lost his temper during the night while in control of the shared body and
assaults another individual, would it be right to punish him by day (i.e. to punish the day-
man)

Locke believed that moral responsibility requires memory of the actions for which one is
held responsible (Warburton, 2011, p22). With Locke’s analysis, the day-man should not
be held morally responsible for the actions of the night man. It appears the key to their
distinct identities seems to be separate consciousness, or separate sets of memories - It
can be seen that Locke aims to show that consciousness, or memory is a principle of
individuation for personal identity.

The second thought experiment being used is this essay - “The Prince and the Cobbler”.
The thought experiment goes, a prince goes to sleep in his palace one night, while in the
city a cobbler also goes to sleep at the same time.
In the morning they discover their minds have switched over into the other persons body.
Physically they have changed, but their minds are the same and are still their own.

If some time before these events the prince had committed murder in order to accelerate
his ascendancy to the throne. which of these two individuals, the one with the prince’s
body and the cobbler’s memory, or the one with the prince’s memory and the cobbler’s
body, should be charged with the murder and punished? (Warburton, 2011, p21)

Again Locke believed that moral responsibility requires memory of the actions for which
one is held responsible (Warburton, 2011, p22). With Locke’s analysis the individual with
the memory of the murder would be the one who should be punished, thus the one with
the prince’s memory and the cobbler’s body should be charged with the murder.

In the two thought experiments explored above Locke aims to show that memory and
consciousness are necessary parts of an individuals personal identity and does this
through the mend of testing moral responsibility.

Word Count for Part B - 471 Words

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Personal Identifier: C1888923 Joseph Murray

References:

Warburton, W (2010) The Self, Milton Keynes, The Open University

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Personal Identifier: C1888923 Joseph Murray

**Note**

Apologies - I was unable to complete this TMA due to work and family commitments but
endeavoured to do what I could with the time I had, apologies once again - Joseph.

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