Course 11 of 18
Being & the Self
The deeper structure: identity, free will, mind, and being.
What this course covers
Being & the Self works through the deeper structure: identity, free will, mind, and being. across 3 lessons. Each opens with a short teaching passage, then tests whether the idea actually landed — and explains every answer rather than just marking it.
The lessons are sequenced, not a menu. The Self Through Time comes first because what makes you the same person? is what the rest of the course assumes; by the end you reach Being & Nothingness.
How it starts
You have different cells, different memories, and different beliefs than you did as a child; yet you call yourself the same person. Philosophers ask what, if anything, makes that true. John Locke argued identity is carried not by the body or an immaterial soul but by continuity of memory and consciousness. Others, like Derek Parfit, suggest strict identity may matter far less than we assume.
“Personal identity consists in the sameness of a rational being.”
Who you will be reading
John Locke is the thinker this course leans on. Each has a profile with their full set of passages in thinkr's library.