more from Sydney Shoemaker

Single Idea 1390

[catalogued under 16. Persons / D. Continuity of the Self / 2. Mental Continuity / a. Memory is Self]

Full Idea

Bodily identity must be one of the criteria for personal identity (to establish that a rememberer was present at a past event), but memory itself must also be accepted as one of the criteria.

Gist of Idea

Bodily identity is one criterion and memory another, for personal identity

Source

report of Sydney Shoemaker (Personal Identity and Memory [1959], §5) by PG - Db (ideas)

Book Reference

'Personal Identity', ed/tr. Perry,John [University of California 1975], p.129


A Reaction

This concerns the epistemology of personal identity, not the ontology. Someone with total amnesia would probably accept a driving licence as a criterion. Is personal identity a mental state, or a precondition which makes mental states possible?