A CRITICAL EXPOSITION OF THE TWO PHYSICAL CRITERIA OF PERSONAL IDENTITY

Who am I? This question on identity has plagued the philosophers over time. This is not only a metaphysical question but also a psychological problem regarding our identity. We are not concerned about our own identity but also about the identity of other person. The question is that why the identity of a person is considered a problem at all. We find that there are many things which can be easily identified, and it is clear that identification of these things is not considered as a problem. The philosophers are not concerned about the identity of material things or any physical objects, then why is it that they regard the identity of a person as a special problem. In the case of the material things, we can identify them by their spatio-temporal characteristics. Let us take an example of a table or a book. I can identify a table of my room as the same table which I saw yesterday by its spatio-temporal continuity. It occupies the same place which it occupied yesterday and hence there is temporal continuity. I can individuate it from another table which is visibly similar with the table of my room by their spatial character because two different tables have occupied two different places at the same time. But it may be said that a person has a spatial character because a person has a body and the body must occupy a particular place. So, a body can be regarded as a physical object, but a person is not just a body.