John locke memory theory
What is animalism in animal farm...
Ask me, I won’t bite
Clara asked:
Can animals be considered persons?
What do philosophers supporting bodily continuity in terms of personal identity argue and how can I reject their arguments?
Answer by Jürgen Lawrenz
Clara, these are great questions, touching on the most fundamental issues that philosophy can deal with!
However, in many ways both of them address the same underlying problem, and so I will deal with them together.
But I must begin with a caveat. Not all philosophers who wrote on these matters were au fait with biology. E.g.
John Locke was a medico in an era of practically zero neurophysiological knowledge, so we must disqualify his pronouncements on two souls in one body and two bodies sharing a soul.
John locke strengths and weaknesses
Similarly some present day conjectures try to fit digital ideas onto living processes and let their fancies outrun biological capacities. I shall ignore them too.
The basics of this matter turn on the possession of language and a conceptual faculty.
These two