DAY 25 Readings in Metaphysics for Seminars

Here are the Readings in Metaphysics for Seminars.  At the end are also some areas to help focus some of your thinking.

Below is an example of a reasonably posed and answered question.  Note the use of quotes, societal links, use of a theory, and note that the question has a quote from the reading too.

Question

In The Self (taken from Essay Concerning Human Understanding), John Locke writes, “We have some kind of evidence in our very bodies, all whose particles, which are vitally united to this same thinking conscious self are a part of ourselves. Cut off a hand, and thereby separate it from that consciousness he had of its heat, cold and other affections... it is then no longer a part of that which is himself anymore than the remotest part of matter.” From this, what can we gather about Locke’s view on personal identity?

Answer
Unlike in Descartes’ rationalism in which the body is considered irrelevant to personhood, Locke believes that the body does make up a fair part of your personal identity. It is your carrier; your body and its unique functions are one aspect of what differentiates humans from being any other sort of animal. However, Locke also recognizes that the mind is important as well, taking a middle-ground approach to the difference between mind and body. When conscious, he believes the mind and body work in harmony to carry out actions – initiated and thought out by the mind, carried out by the body. But does that mean that the mind and body are of equal importance?

Taken from his own words in other work, Locke wrote, “...the basic ingredients to personhood include rationality, thought, consciousness, self-consciousness and self identity.” It should also be noted that there was much controversy over this definition of personhood, as it does not claim all humans are persons and vice versa. Thus, the theory was improved by contemporary philosopher Daniel Dennett to include verbal communication and being subject of a special stance to other persons. However, as all of the aforementioned conditions to personhood are directly linked to the mind, one may assume that Locke favours mind over matter in terms of what defines personhood. In the quote from the question above, Locke suggests that you can cut off a body part, and because it is no longer linked to your body, it is no longer something that defines you or your personal identity.

He also goes on to explain how someone may be considered to be two different people depending on their mentality. He writes, “If the same Socrates waking and sleeping do not partake of the same consciousness, Socrates waking and sleeping is not the same person... to punish Socrates waking for what sleeping Socrates thought... would be no more right than to punish one twin for what his brother-twin did, because their outsides were so alike that they could not be distinguished.” Another instance that could be used in this scenario is someone that drank a large amount of alcohol and become intoxicated. The alcohol impairs the person’s judgement and perhaps behaves in a way that they would if they were not intoxicated. In Locke’s perspective, they should not be considered the same person, as their mentality is one uncharacteristic of their normal behaviour. As he later states, “Why else is he punished for the fact he commits when drunk, though he be never afterwards conscious of it?”

From this, we can gather that Locke believes that while your body is your belonging and in its purest position will contribute to your personal identity, mind is ultimately most important as you cannot separate yourself from it. A harmonious mind and body contributes to optimal peace. As was quoted by him, “A sound mind in a sound body, is a short, but full description of a happy state in this World: he that has these two, has little more to wish for; and he that wants either of them, will be little the better for anything else.”