Locke and the Problem of Personal Identity by Antony Flew- Study Guide

Questions of survival, pre-existence, and immortality are all questions of personal

identity
How does Locke define his use of the word same?
o Locke equates consciousness to memory
The war on Lockes thesis- two sides
o Consciousness presupposes personal identity
It is absurd to say that he is the same person by saying he can
remember that he is the same person (draw reference from the
Shoemaker reading)
o Locke is too strict and too lenient with his usage of the term same man
There is ambiguity in his use of the word remember
Differentiate between genuine remembering and honest memory claims
What does one have that the other does not?
Can and Remember
o What are the four possible scenarios Locke interchanges for can and
remember, according to Flew?
The famous paradox of the gallant officer
How does Berkeley criticize Locke?
Is it possible for a person to have remembered doing X when they had not actually done
X?
How does Lockes use of consciousness shift in varying ways?
When you meet someone, are you meeting a person in terms of how Locke describes a
person, as a fleshy body? Or are you meeting something more than just an exterior?
How does Flew use the word person?
Locke assumed there is one single necessary and sufficient conclusion for moral and legal
responsibility
What are the three grounds for Lockes distinction between man and person?
Thinking is done by some internal thinking thing
o Is it possible for that thinking thing to think without one (a consciousness)
knowing about it?
o Flew claims we write with our hands, but we do not sleep, decide, or fret with
special organs for sleeping, deciding, and fretting
Thinking is an affection of the whole man
Flew claims what to be the fifth source of Lockes incorrect analysis of personal identity?
What is open texture of a concept?
Splitting a person like an amoeba
o Results in person A1 and person A2
o Are they the same person? What would like conclude? What does Flew conclude?
Can questions be asked about identity that do not have a clear true or false answer?
Locke states the subject must always know whether or not he is the same person
o What could be used to argue against this claim? (think about age, mental capacity,
illness)

The last paragraph on page 68 offers a good summary of Flews main points (Hint)