No. 73 (2025): Septiembre-diciembre
Articles

G. W. Leibniz on Personal Identity in the New Essays on Human Understanding

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  • Vinícius França Freitas
Vinícius França Freitas
Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais

Published 2025-08-01

Keywords

  • consciousness,
  • self-consciousness,
  • mental phenomena,
  • memory,
  • testimony,
  • personal identity,
  • moral identity,
  • real identity,
  • apparent identity,
  • G. W. Leibniz
    • ...More
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How to Cite

França Freitas, V. (2025). G. W. Leibniz on Personal Identity in the New Essays on Human Understanding. Tópicos, Revista De Filosofía, 73, 49-79. https://doi.org/10.21555/top.v730.2977
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Abstract

This paper discusses G. W. Leibniz’s understanding of personal identity in the New Essays on Human Understanding. After a brief introduction to the notions of real identity and apparent identity (section 1), I advance the hypothesis that there is a distinction between two sorts of consciousness: consciousness of the self and consciousness of mental phenomena (section 2). I then discuss the originality of Leibniz’s distinction between the self and personal identity, as well as systematize the four appearances that produce the latter: self-consciousness, consciousness, memory, and testimony (section 3). Finally, I argue that moral identity depends on personal identity (section 4).

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