Issue of Personal Identity on John Locke and Richard Swinburne Articles

Student’s Name
Professor’s Name
Subject
DD MM YYYY
Philosophy
In his article, “Of Identity and Diversity,” John Locke attempts to explain self-identity as atoms that make an individual as the same and remain the same over time. Locke emphasizes that an individual atom’s existence depends on their continuation over a period of time. John Locke examines whether it is the physical or psychological continuity that matters in defining personal identity (4). He argues that the human body is not essential in determining the identity of a person since the body can lose its own identity over some time (Locke 21). Therefore, the identity of a person consists of the identity of conscious and not identity of the substance.
To explain this, Locke uses an example of the soul of a prince carrying the conscious of his past, when it enters into the body of a cobbler it is seen as the same person (16). To differentiate between a man and a person, Locke uses an example of a rational talking parrot and compares it with an organism of the same shape as that of a human being though it is unable to engage in rational discourse (8). To conclude this context of personal identity, John Locke emphasizes that self-identity can only be achieved through psychological continuity.
Richard Swinburne’s “Personal Identity: the Dualist Theory” uses two theories to explore the issue of personal identity, i.e. the empiricist theory and dualist theory. In empiricist theory, Swinburne uses two questions to explain personal identity. First, “what is the necessary and sufficient condition that the second person at the second time being the same person as the first person for the first time? Second, what ...