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Single Idea 1359

[filed under theme 16. Persons / A. Concept of a Person / 2. Persons as Responsible ]

Full Idea

Identity, when applied to persons, has no ambiguity, and admits of no degrees. It is the foundation of all rights and obligations, and of all accountableness.

Gist of Idea

Personal identity is the basis of all rights, obligations and responsibility

Source

Thomas Reid (Essays on Intellectual Powers 3: Memory [1785], III.Ch 4)

Book Ref

'Personal Identity', ed/tr. Perry,John [University of California 1975], p.112

A Reaction

This seems to me to be one of the key mistakes in all of philosophy - thinking that items must always be all-or-nothing. If a person deteriorates through Alzheimer's, there seem to be obvious degrees of personhood. Responsibility comes in degrees, too.

The 16 ideas from 'Essays on Intellectual Powers 3: Memory'

23644 Without memory we could have no concept of duration [Reid]
23643 We all trust our distinct memories (but not our distinct imaginings) [Reid]
1356 A person is a unity, and doesn't come in degrees [Reid]
1359 Personal identity is the basis of all rights, obligations and responsibility [Reid]
21319 I can hardly care about rational consequence if it wasn't me conceiving the antecedent [Reid]
21323 The identity of a thief is only known by similarity, but memory gives certainty in our own case [Reid]
21321 Memory reveals my past identity - but so does testimony of other witnesses [Reid]
1350 Continuity is needed for existence, otherwise we would say a thing existed after it ceased to exist [Reid]
21322 We treat slowly changing things as identical for the sake of economy in language [Reid]
21320 Identity is familiar to common sense, but very hard to define [Reid]
1352 Thoughts change continually, but the self doesn't [Reid]
1367 Identity can only be affirmed of things which have a continued existence [Reid]
21324 If consciousness is transferable 20 persons can be 1; forgetting implies 1 can be 20 [Reid]
21325 Boy same as young man, young man same as old man, old man not boy, if forgotten! [Reid]
21327 If a stolen horse is identified by similitude, its identity is not therefore merely similitude [Reid]
1366 If consciousness is personal identity, it is continually changing [Reid]