Locke on Personal Identity: A Response to the Problems of His Predecessors

In this paper, I argue that the strengths of John Locke's account of personal identity can be revealed by understanding it in the context of the metaphysical and religious debates of his day, especially the debates concerning the possibility of the afterlife and the resurrection. I adopt Locke's classifications of the views of his predecessors and examine metaphysical problems for material, Cartesian and non-Cartesian immaterial views of the...