ABSTRACT
Jonathan Lowe contends that the notion of personal identity is primitive and ungrounded, which means that persons are not to be identified with those organisms or other beings – in our experience solely human – that exhibit personhood. While I agree with this non-identity, I will argue that the reason no such identification will work is because the term ‘person’ is not a sortal, but is a psychosocial honorific – somewhat like ‘captain’ – applying pro tem to those beings which have attained distinctive “personal” capacities. Transtemporal identity conditions are formulated which show persons to be (as in Locke and Lowe) identifiable neither with masses of matter nor with organisms, but their status as persons requires them to be physical.
