John Lockes Concept of a Persistant Self Essay - 1055 Words

In this essay I will first explain John Locke’s statement, â€Å"whatever has the consciousness of present and past actions is the same person to whom they both belong† (278). Then I will elaborate on the criteria outlined by Locke to describe the concept of a persistent self. Following the flushing out of Locke’s reasoning, I will delve into David Hume’s concept of the Self as a bundle of perceptions. The juxtaposition of these two propositions of the nature of self will show that John Locke’s idea of persistent self is flawed when examined against David Hume’s concept of self as a bundle of perceptions. Locke states that, â€Å"whatever has the consciousness of present and past actions is the same person to whom they both belong† (278). What†¦show more content†¦One who holds the chain view of self may say that although they cannot remember a certain time period, they can remember a time period when they could recall the period which they currently cannot. Through this shared link of remembered consciousness and the application of Locke’s assertion that, â€Å"whatever has the consciousness of present and past actions is the same person to whom they belong† (278) the perpetrator of the chain view can justify their assertion that they are the same person now as they were in the time period they cannot recall. Locke, however, would not subscribe to this application of his own logic. Locke states that, â€Å"if it be possible for the same man to have distinct incommunicable consciousness at different times, it is past doubt the same man would at diffe rent times make different persons† (279). Locke believes in self as subject to be subject to change enough to constitute an entirely different self from one moment to another granted a lack of memory. David Hume posits an entirely different viewpoint of the self as a bundle of perceptions in his argument against Locke’s concept of the persistent self. Hume lays out two arguments in his error theory: that there is no good reason for believing that we are persistent beings, and that we mistake the ideas of identity and diversity when defining the self as persistent. David Hume proposes in his argument that the concept of a persistent self lacks sufficient