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Identity In Memento

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In the film Memento (Nolan, 2000), when Leonard Shelby and his wife are attacked, he then suffers a head injury, which causes him to lose his short term memory, and is therefore unable to form any new memories after the event. In my essay I will assess the key elements or rather philosophical views, with regards to personal identity. I will look at the importance of memory in making us who we are, and ensuring the continuity of our identity over time. I will argue that even after the course of events, Leonard is “one-and-the-same person”. To strengthen my reasoning I will start by looking at numeric and qualitative identity, furthermore, asses the necessary and sufficient conditions for being qualitatively and numerically the same person over …show more content…

Qualitative identity deals with the sharing of properties, which tend to change or develop over time, whereas numeric identity requires total or absolute ‘identity’, which can only hold between a thing and itself. To clearly discus this concept, take for example how, in common speech, people say “She has grown into such a different person”. This idea of ‘different person’ only focuses on the qualitative change, other examples are, getting bigger or smaller, or learning new things and picking up different habits. All this presupposes that there is just one person here, before and after these ‘property’ changes, otherwise who could be this new ‘She’. The assumption is therefore, that one can persist through qualitative change. This leaves a big challenge for my essay, which is the concept of a ‘person’ persisting through time, being the question of numerical identity. In essence, what did it take for Leonard to be the same person, before and after the attack, in this …show more content…

The statements in ‘blanks’ (1) and (2) would have to be the same. This would make it both necessary and sufficient for personal identity. This philosophical conclusion leads me to John Lockes’ memory theory (Perry, 2008:35). John Locke stated that memory is the centre component of identity. Locke believed that it is through our consciousness that we remain the same ‘person’ over time. He continued to say that, memory is the extension of consciousness to the past. In the movie Leonard is able to reason and reflect on himself, and his consciousness distinguishes him from other

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