ABSTRACT
In modern philosophy, memory plays a central role in discussions of personal identity. On one view, memory plays a role in what makes us the same person across time. On an alternative view, memory instead serves as evidence of identity with a past person. Philosophers have attempted to amend the simple Memory Criterion to address these problems. For the transitivity problem, philosophers appeal to the fact that typically there are immediate memory connections from day to day, and one can think of these connections as chaining together to secure a series of connected mental states. The view that memory of experiences provides evidence of personal identity fits naturally with animalist views, according to which the self persists as long as the organism does. When participants are given a list of trait adjectives and asked whether they possess those traits, people respond consistently over time, and their responses correlate with third-person reports from friends and relatives.
