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Philosophy vocabulary · Metaphysics

Personal identity

Meaning in philosophy, with examples

nounCommon term

In philosophy, personal identity means: The question of what makes a person at one time the same person as someone at another time, despite changes in body and mind.

In Turkish: kişisel özdeşlik, kişi özdeşliği

How it is used

A metaphysical topic, not the psychological or social idea of identity (who you feel you are). Locke tied personal identity to memory and consciousness; later views stress bodily, brain or psychological continuity. Derek Parfit argued that identity matters less than we think.

Example sentences

  1. Teleportation cases are a standard way to test theories of personal identity.

  2. On Locke's view, personal identity reaches back as far as your memory does.

Common collocations

  • personal identity over time
  • theory of personal identity
  • psychological continuity
  • memory criterion
  • metaphysicsThe branch of philosophy that studies the basic nature of reality: what exists, what things are, and ideas such as time, cause, identity and possibility.
  • consciousnessThe state of having experiences, of there being something it is like to see, feel or think; also the state of being awake and aware.
  • substanceIn metaphysics, something that exists in its own right and has properties, rather than being a property of something else.
  • essenceThe set of properties that make a thing what it is, without which it would not be that kind of thing at all.

More terms: Metaphysics

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