The Problem of Personal Identity

In this chapter, following a short history of the concept of the person and a more detailed description of the analytical problem of personal identity, the author presents and critically evaluates two prominent analytical theories of personal identity: the empiricist bundle theory and the metaphysical ego theory. He then attempts to demonstrate that the standard debate between empiricists and metaphysicians about personal identity in analytical philosophy culminates in an aporia. The author restricts himself to the standard debate between the adherents of the two most prominent theories. The mental continuity theory of personal identity, according the empiricist, is a special case of the general causal theory of the identity through time of continuants. The nature of empiricist self-identity is related in this respect to the gradual nature of object identity. A close investigation of the empiricist bundle theory leads to the outcome that personal identity is only identity in a loose or conventional sense.