Philosophy Document No. 1: Personal IdentityWhat is personal identity? This question has been asked and debated by philosophers for centuries. The problem of personal identity involves determining what conditions and qualities are necessary and sufficient for a person to exist as a being at a given time. Some believe that personal identity is physical, taking a materialist perspective believing that bodily continuity or physicality is what makes a person a person, believing that even mental things are caused by some sort of physical event. Others take a more idealistic approach, believing that mental continuity is the only factor in establishing personal identity, believing that physical things are only a reflection of the mind. Another perspective on personal identity and one that I will attempt to explain and defend in this article is that personal identity requires both physical and psychological continuity; my argument is this: 1) Bodily continuity is required for the function of mental continuity. 2) Mental continuity is necessary in the definition of personal identity. Therefore, mental and physical continuity are both necessary and sufficient to define personal identity. These premises, both of which are true, support the conclusion of this argument. The first premise states that bodily continuity is required for the function of mental continuity; this is of course true since all mental activity is generated in the brain whose sustenance depends on the proper functioning of the body. Furthermore, the second premise emphasizes that mental continuity is necessary to define personal identity. Mental continuity as it relates to personal identity is a combination of memory and consciousness. Memo...... middle of paper ......sertotruth.com/video-profile/What-is-the-Nature-of-Personal-Identity-Raymond-Kurzweil-/632>.Stewart, Wayne. “Personal identity”. Metaphysics by default. 1999. Internet. February 3, 2011. Gunnarsson, Logi. "Logi Gunnarsson - Philosophy of Personal Identity and Multiple Personality - Reviewed by John P. Lizza, Kutztown University of Pennsylvania - Philosophical Journals - University of Notre Dame." About Philosophical Journals - University of Notre Dame. Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews, 2004. Web. March 2011. Moore, Brooke Noel. and Kenneth Bruder. "Chapter 6- The rise of metaphysics and epistemology; Chapter 9- Pragmatic and analytical traditions; Chapter 7- The 18th and 19th centuries." Philosophy: the power of ideas. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, 2011. Print.