Animalism (personal identity)

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The theory of Animalism, most strongly defended by Eric Olson and Paul Snowdon, is a philosophical theory of personal identity, which states that people can be said to persist through time insomuch as the living, physical human animal that they most usually call their body, persists.

Under animalism, there is no distinction between words like 'you', 'I', 'person', and the human animal which they usually accompany. You are that human animal, you are numerically identitical to it. Hence you persist if it persists.

Olson argues that mental states are irrelevant. If your cerebrum was destroyed but the rest of your body continued to live (as with humans in vegetative states), although you would not have any mental life at all, you still exist. Controversially, personhood is not an essential feature of something under animalism, but may be gained or lost. Foetuses and vegetative humans have lost their personhood, but have persisted in that they are the same human animal.

Animalism strictly rejects Psychological Approaches to personal identity.