The Second Treatise of Government, by John Locke

Related to this modern self is "possessive individualism", a conception of the individual "as essentially the proprietor of his own person or capacities, owing nothing to society for them” (Macpherson 1962, 3). The British philosopher John Locke (1632–1704) provided its founding formula when, in the Second Treatise of Government (1690, §27), he wrote that 'every Man has a Property in his own Person' [...]

[...] Locke too, in a revolutionary move, reconceived “person” as a continuity of memory and consciousness. It followed that personhood could in principle be attached to any material substance. However, since memory and consciousness were associated with the contents of the head, the brain became the organ of the self or, more precisely, the only organ we need in order to be ourselves as persons.

Vidal, Fernando and Ortega, Francisco. Being Brains: Making the Cerebral Subject (Forms of Living) (...

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