John Locke (1632-1704) said "To find out what personal identity consists in, we must consider what the person represents..." (Locke, in the book, p. 275). Therefore, to recapitulate Locke's philosophy on personal identity it is necessary to clarify how he inimitably used the term "person" and consequently other words, such as "substance" and "man", which he used to form his ideas philosophical. Furthermore, his work on personal identity has inspired debate among many subsequent philosophers and motivated disagreements, and as such, it is important to counter Locke's views with opposing arguments. The primary way Locke discussed and clarified his ideas was through the thought experiment, which Locke carefully modeled as an imaginary scenario to reveal human intuition on a philosophical question. He used them to illustrate the unique way he used certain words, like “substance.” For Locke, "substances" were immaterial or material things that existed independently and had subcategories within them. A subcategory of this term was immaterial "substance", such as "soul". One particular thought experiment he uses to explain his ideas about the “soul” concerns Nestor or Thersites; where some believed that one of these men of the Trojan legend once lived in his soul. Of this he says; “But yet the soul alone, in the change of bodies, would hardly suffice for anyone… to form the same man” (Locke, in the book, p, 277). Establishing that he believed the soul was an immaterial "substance", although not necessarily what constitutes continuous consciousness; a radical idea, for in this century the majority believed that the "soul", bequeathed to man by a deity, was the continuing awareness that mad... middle of paper...ophia, Milton Keynes, The Open University. 'Personal identity', audio recording, (2011). 'The self', Exploring Philosophy, Milton Keynes, The Open University.Bennet, J. (2007), paraphrase of Locke, J. (1690) An Essay understanding Human Understanding, Book II, ch. 27, paragraphs 17-22, in Warburton (2011), 'The Self', ExploringPhilosophing, Milton Keynes, The Open University, pp. 107-109.Mackie, J.L. (1976) Problems from Locke, Oxford, Oxford University Press, pp. 173-7, in Warburton (2011), 'The Self', Exploring Philosophy, Milton Keynes, The Open University, pp. 110-114.Uzgalis, William, "John Locke", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2010 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = .Warburton, N. (2011) 'The Self', ExploringPhilosophing , Milton Keynes, The Open University, pp. 7-51.