Abstract

This dissertation deals with the problem of personal identity and the nature of persons. In Chapter I, I argue that the traditional accounts of personal identity, soul or Cartesian egos, psychological stream views and corporeal stream views are plagued with difficulties. In Chapter II, I raise the problem of quasi-belief, quasi-intention and quasi-desire, and argue that Parfit's reductionist view of personal survival should be rejected because it fails to describe the unity of a life. In Chapter III, I consider Wollheim's creative criterion of psychological interrelatedness, and argue that the unity of the process can come apart in the life of a human. In Chapter IV, I sketch a contextual creative ethical criterion of personal identity