Two Questions of Who You Are

What does it mean to be the same person over time? In this brief introduction to a four-part series, Marya Schechtman explains that personal identity is a question we encounter constantly, yet rarely examine closely. From picking up a child at daycare to repaying a friend, our daily lives depend on recognizing individuals as the same person across different times and places. But personal identity also involves deeper questions: What does it mean to "find yourself" or experience an identity crisis? Schechtman distinguishes between two senses of personal identity. One concerns the conditions under which a person at one time is the same individual at another. The other concerns what makes someone the particular person they are. She maps out the major philosophical approaches to these questions, including psychological continuity, bodily continuity, and narrative accounts, previewing how each captures important insights while facing its own challenges. The lecture sets the stage for understanding how these two dimensions of identity connect and why that connection matters.