Page "Self-awareness" Paragraph 5

Self-identity is not founded either on the body or the substance, argues Locke, as the substance may change while the person remains the same: " animal identity is preserved in identity of life, and not of substance ", as the body of the animal grows and changes during its life.

Take for example a prince's soul which enters the body of a cobbler: to all exterior eyes, the cobbler would remain a cobbler.

But to the prince himself, the cobbler would be himself, as he would be conscious of the prince's thoughts and acts, and not of the cobbler's life.

A prince's consciousness in a cobbler body: thus the cobbler is, in fact, a prince.

But this interesting border-case leads to this problematic thought that since personal identity is based on consciousness, and that only oneself can be aware of his consciousness, exterior human judges may never know if they really are judging — and punishing — the same person, or simply the same body.

In other words, Locke argues that you may be judged only for the acts of your body, as this is what is apparent to all but God ; however, you are in truth only responsible for the acts for which you are conscious.

This forms the basis of the insanity defense: one can't be held accountable for acts in which one was unconsciously irrational, mentally ill — and therefore leads to interesting philosophical questions: