Locke, Memory & Personal Identity

Locke's views on memory are too often oversimplified. This previously unpublished essay by S. G. Sterrett takes a sympathetic look at Locke's writings on the topic. The most interesting (and plausible) accounts of memory hold that, rather than simply retrieving stored entities, remembering is an act intrinsically and intimately involving a specific person --- if person is taken in Locke's sense -- and so these accounts support Locke's appeal to memory in his discussion of personal identity.