Self. Consciousness and awareness Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Self. Consciousness and awareness - Essay Example ?a thinking intelligent Being, that has reason and reflection, and can consider it self as it self, the same thinking thing in different times and places† (Locke, 9). Locke states that as far as the consciousness can be extended to some past action or thought, so far can the identity of the person reach – therefore he correlates identity of a person with his consciousness. It is clear that John Locke makes a distinction between body and consciousness (â€Å"a man† and â€Å"a person†). For him these two notions are not the same. Man accounts for body and spirit, and person accounts for reason and reflection. Locke says that if a person would remember some things from his past, he would not be the same person, but nevertheless can be the same man. A big role is played by memory in Locke’s idea of personal identity. To explain his theory about separation of man and person, Locke gives a few examples. He states, for example, that if a prince and a cobbler would change bodies than a personal identity would be where the consciousness is. Another example is if Heliogabalus would turn into a pig, he would be the same person, but not a man. If a parrot holds rational, self-aware conversations, then he is a person, but not a man. These examples confirm Locke’s theory on separation of body and self. (Locke, 8, 15) Locke believes that if the body dies, the self is transferred into a new body, but it remains the same self, and therefore – the same identity, because identity, according to Locke, is independent of body. Locke does not identify consciousness with substance. He gives an example of a hand, being cut off the body. At that point, it becomes separate from the body, the substance of the body has changed (it does not have one hand anymore), but the consciousness did not change, and this is the same person (Locke, 11) John Locke states that consciousness unites actions into the same person. It is consciousness that unites actions different in time into the