Product Description

This volume brings together the vital contributions of distinguished past and contemporary philosophers to the important topic of personal identity. The essays range from John Locke's classic seventeenth-century attempt to analyze personal identity in terms of memory, to twentieth-century defenses and criticisms of the Lockean view by Anthony Quinton, H.P. Grice, Sydney Shoemaker, David Hume, Joseph Butler, Thomas Reid, and Bernard Williams. New to the second edition are Shoemaker's seminal essay "Persons and Their Pasts", selections from the important and previously unpublished Clark-Collins correspondence, and a new paper by Perry discussing Williams.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #741713 in Books
• Published on: 2008-04-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 362 pages

About the Author
John Perry is Professor of Philosophy at Stanford University, co-host of the award-winning radio program "Philosophy Talk," and author of many books including Knowledge, Possibility, and Conciousness and Identity, Personal Identity, and the Self.

Customer Reviews

Classic and still relevant anthology
25 years after its initial publication Perry's anthology is still the best first-stop source for those interested in the philosophical problem of personal identity. It contains the definitive historial texts from Locke and Hume as well as contemporary objections from Reid and Butler. The boundaries of the debate are all to be found in these extracts. The anthology also contains influential articles from the post-war period which helped rekindle interest in the debate. Particularly important in this respect are articles from Derek Parfit, Bernard Williams and Thomas Nagel.

Any student or general reader looking to acquire a firm grounding in one of philosophy's most intriguing topics would be well-advised to digest Perry's anthology from beginning to end.