Personal Identity
Eric T. Olson · 2023 · Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Summary
What makes a person the same person over time — the criterion problem at the heart of survival, reincarnation, and uploading debates.
Why it matters here
Any claim about surviving death or being reincarnated presupposes a theory of personal identity. This entry sets the terms.
Linked claims
Decades of cases of young children making specific, verifiable claims about a deceased stranger's life — across many cultures, with reproducible sub-patterns (≈70% violent deaths, family-rebirth clusters).
If past-life cases are taken seriously, reincarnation is the most economical narrative — but several other models also fit the data.
A New Age doctrine that pre-birth agreements — sometimes elaborated into detailed 'life plans' — explain difficult relationships and life events. No empirical basis beyond suggestible regression.
Drawn from regression-based literature. Comforting frame, not an evidence-based claim.
NDEs, past-life cases, terminal lucidity and mediumship cluster suggestively. Each line is contested; together they earn a hearing.
Related evidence hubs
Children's past-life memories, birthmark cases, and the rebirth interpretation.
Past-life memories, karma, soul contracts.
Whether anything of mind continues.
World religions and traditions, scored as systems.
Growth, suffering, synchronicity, calling.
Determinism, free will, destiny.
Life purpose, growth, synchronicity, soul groups, destiny.
Evidence around dying, near-death experience, and what (if anything) continues.