Spatio-temporal Continuity and Personhood: An Analysis of the Diachronicity of Identity Through Two Criterions

Abstract

The concept of and continuity of personal identity has long fascinated philosophers, psychologists, and individuals alike. This essay explores the continuity of the self from childhood onwards, examining how fundamental characteristics, memories, and experiences contribute to the persistence of personal identity through the dualist theory of the mind and body. In this view, a person is the same person as an earlier person if they have the same form as the earlier person and have continuity of matter with them. This essay will assert that human essence, through Olsons animalism, remains the same and that the enduring connections formed through memories, values, and self-perception, however unreliable, may contribute to a sense of sameness, with the final determination of sameness belonging to the person whose personhood is put to question.