Locke on the Resurrection of Persons: Taxonomy and the Biblical Texts

Résumé

In An Essay Concerning Human Understanding Locke offers a theory of personal identity which is intended to make sense of the Pauline doctrine of the resurrection of the dead. On Locke’s theory there are philosophical difficulties in the way of saying that bodies and human beings, as opposed to persons, can be resurrected at the Day of Judgment. In this paper I address the issue of whether Locke’s account of the resurrection is as successful as it appears to be. I argue that his theory raises two kinds of difficulty. In the first half I show how the theory must confront philosophical objections arising from Locke’s thesis in Book III of the Essay that classification is the workmanship of the understanding; this thesis seems to threaten the distinction between the concepts of human being and person on which his account of the resurrection depends. Drawing on Locke’s neglected discussion of “changelings” I show further how he must confront objections arising from his thesis that God operates with his own taxonomy. In the second half of the paper I turn to more specifically theological problems and address the issue of whether Locke is justified in claiming that his account of the resurrection is confirmed by the teachings of St Paul. I argue that Locke cannot wholly dispel the suspicion that he is guilty of reading his own philosophy into the text of St Paul’s epistles.