Charles Hartshorne’s Critique of the Ontology of Substance

Abstract

At one point or another, every human person finds himself or herself asking the question at the heart of the problem of personal identity: What am I? Of course, certain experiences, e.g., religious or mystical ones that seem to “enlarge” the “I,” do more than others to awaken occasions for posing such question. A little less frequent perhaps is the question: What relationship do I have with my body? Physical pain wrought by accidents or bodily illnesses, especially severe ones, usually trigger such questioning. Here the relationship of the “I” to the “thing” one calls one’s “body” is shown to be just as important as the question about one’s identity.