Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-6bf8c574d5-mggfc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-02-24T00:05:57.373Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

145. - Personal Identity

from P

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 January 2025

By
Ursula Renz  and
Oliver I. Toth
Edited by
Karolina Hübner  and
Justin Steinberg
Karolina Hübner
Affiliation:
Cornell University, New York
Justin Steinberg
Affiliation:
Cornell University, New York
Get access

Summary

Although the problem is perhaps as old as philosophy itself, the concept of ‘personal identity’ is introduced into philosophical discourse by John Locke (1632–1704) in his Essay concerning Human Understanding. For Locke, the issue became pressing because of his agnostic attitude with respect to the existence and essence of substances and therefore with respect to the notion that human persons are, or consist of, substances. It is against this skeptical background that the question as to what constitutes the identity of persons needs to be addressed in Locke, and he does so by turning consciousness and memory into the grounding for, and the criterion of, personal identity.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Spinoza Lexicon , pp. 419 - 421
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Recommended Reading

Barbone, S. (2002). What counts as an individual for Spinoza? In Koistinen, O. and Biro, J., Spinoza: Metaphysical Themes (pp. 89–112). Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Garrett, D. (1994). Spinoza’s theory of metaphysical individuation. In Barber, K. F. and Gracia, J. G. E. (eds.), Individuation and Identity in Early Modern Philosophy: Descartes to Kant (pp. 73–101). State University of New York Press.Google Scholar
Gilead, A. (1983). Spinoza’s principium individuationis and personal identity. International Studies in Philosophy, 15(1), 41–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lin, M. (2005). Memory and personal identity in Spinoza. Canadian Journal of Philosophy, 35, 243–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Newlands, S. (2020). Spinozistic selves. Journal of the American Philosophical Association, 6)1), 16–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Perler, D. (2021). Spinoza on diachronic identity. In Melamed, Y. (ed.), A Companion to Spinoza (pp. 170–78). Wiley-Blackwell.Google Scholar
Renz, U. (2018). The Explainability of Experience: Realism and Subjectivity in Spinoza’s Theory of the Human Mind. Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Saw, R. L. (1972). Personal identity in Spinoza. In Kashap, P. S. (ed.), Studies in Spinoza: Critical and Interpretive Essays (pp. 86–100). Hutchinson.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×