Personal identity as a social concept

• Author / Creator

  Hayman, Edward

• The Thesis argues that the concept of ‘personal identity’ is developed in social circumstances, relating to ideas about how the self continues through time and to ‘person-directed’ concerns. Chapter one uses William James’s classification of the constituents of the self, and his idea of the ‘stream of consciousness’, as an introduction to the concept. Chapters two and three deal with: George Mead’s ideas about the self arising in social interaction; Eric Olson’s distinction between ‘biological’ and ‘psychological’ continuity; Mark Johnston’s view of ‘wide psychological continuity’ and his ‘relativist’ approach to personal identity; Robert Nozick’s notions of ‘reflective self-reference’ and the ‘closest continuer’; Derek Parfit’s ‘reductionist’ approach; Wesley Cooper’s elaboration of Nozick’s account. Chapter four favours a physicalist account of the self and a flexible approach to the concept of personal identity, accommodating the needs and practices of the society in which the individual finds himself.

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Identity
  • Personal

• Graduation date

  Fall 2010

• Type of Item

  Thesis

• Degree

  Master of Arts

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/R3TH27

• License

  This thesis is made available by the University of Alberta Libraries with permission of the copyright owner solely for non-commercial purposes. This thesis, or any portion thereof, may not otherwise be copied or reproduced without the written consent of the copyright owner, except to the extent permitted by Canadian copyright law.