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Thomas Locke's Transitivity Of Identity

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When we think about our personal identity, we finally come to a question: “Am I the same person that I’ve been earlier in my life?”, and usually we end up with an opinion that even though our bodies change over time, we still remain being the same persons. Of course excluding the cases of severe memory loss or any other similar condition.
Through this essay I will convince you that this point of view is mistaken. At first, I will share a light on Locke’s identity of consciousness argument. Furthermore, after showing Locke’s view of the consistence of personal identity over time, I will talk you through Thomas Reid’s “transitivity of identity” argument. Following that, I will introduce you to Irving Copi’s definition of personal identity and my interpretation of it. In the end, I will summarize all the ideas and points of view, to come to my final conclusion, that you are NOT the same person as you were when you were six years old.
Locke’s identity of consciousness states that there is a difference between a human being and a person. A human being is just the body of a person, everything that is considered as existing through its materiality in our bodies. While a person is a “thinking intellectual being” that is still the same …show more content…

John Locke writes that memories actually make us a person even when our bodies change over time, and that certain events have an impact on us. It all makes sense until we come down to Thomas Reid’s opposition, which uses the principle of “transitivity” in relation to identity to show us how Locke’s idea violates that law, through a thought experiment. At the end comes Irvin Copi who has made two very important statements. Through the statements it is assumed that everything changes from one thing to another all the time, which again contradicts Locke’s idea of

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