Key Idea: Topic 1.1 is the heart of the core theme 'Being Human'. It asks the deepest everyday question in philosophy: what makes you the same person across your whole life — and does staying 'you' even matter? Master this one topic and you have a ready-made answer for Paper 1 Section A, a 25-mark essay on what it is to be human.
🧠 The six big questions, one card each
Topic 1.1 at a glance
- 1.1.1 · What is identity? — Personal identity means being the SAME person over time (numerical), not just similar (qualitative). The persistence question: what has to carry on for you to stay you?
- 1.1.2 · Body or mind? — The body view (you are your living body/brain) vs the mind view (you are your memories and personality). The body-swap test pulls them apart — the side you'd 'wake up' on is the side you really think you are.
- 1.1.3 · Identity over time — Can you survive total change? The ship of Theseus and the teleporter suggest what matters is the continuous PATTERN, not the exact material — as long as change is gradual and connected.
- 1.1.4 · Memory — Locke: you are your connected memories. Reid's brave officer shows memory ALONE gives a contradiction; overlapping chains patch it. A powerful but not complete answer.
- 1.1.5 · Cultural identity — De Beauvoir: we 'become' who we are through our culture and roles. But you're not simply its product — argue for a degree, not an extreme.
- 1.1.6 · What really matters? — Parfit: maybe being 'you' isn't the point. What we actually care about is psychological connectedness — that your memories, values and projects carry on.
Numerical identity = being one and the same thing (this phone is the very one I bought last year). Qualitative identity = being exactly alike (two phones off the same line). Personal identity is always the numerical kind — whether you are literally the same person, not just similar.
✍️ Bring it together — a Section A question
Stimulus — A woman opens a box of her childhood things. "I don't remember being her," she says of the girl who owned them. "Different body, different mind, different world. And yet everyone insists she's me." With explicit reference to the stimulus and your own knowledge, explore a philosophical issue related to what it is to be human.
Model answer plan
See the mark-by-mark plan — for / against / judgement, with marking guidance — in study mode.
Important: Describing views instead of arguing them. Don't just say 'Locke thinks X, Parfit thinks Y.' Give each view a reason, test it with an objection, then decide. A name earns nothing without its argument — and a top answer always reaches a reasoned conclusion, never 'it's just opinion'.
✅ Check yourself
If you can answer these six, you have the spine of the whole topic.
Numerical vs qualitative identity? Numerical = one and the same thing; qualitative = exactly alike. Personal identity is the numerical kind.
What is the persistence question? What must carry on for a person now to be the same person earlier or later — what keeps you the same through change.
Body view vs mind view? Body: you are your living body/brain. Mind: you are your memories and personality. The body-swap case pulls them apart.
Reid's brave officer — what does it show? One man at three ages (boy → soldier → general): by memory the general is the soldier and the soldier the boy, but the general isn't the boy — a contradiction for Locke.
What is the no-self view? There is no fixed self, only a changing bundle of experiences — Vasubandhu (anattā) and, later, Hume.
Parfit's key claim? Maybe identity isn't what matters — psychological connectedness is (that your memories, values and projects continue).
Exam tips
- Section A is a 25-mark essay on the core theme — identity is the strongest issue to reach for, and this whole topic feeds it.
- Turn the stimulus into a question about persons, then explore → evaluate → conclude.
- Name a thinker ONLY with their argument — a name on its own earns no marks.
- Always weigh at least two views and end on a reasoned conclusion, not a list.