Raymond Martin and John Barresi trace the development of Western ideas about personal identity and reveal the larger intellectual trends, controversies, and ideas that have revolutionized the way we think about ourselves. They begin with ancient Greece, where the ideas of Plato, Aristotle, and the materialistic atomists laid the groundwork for future theories. They then discuss the ideas of the church fathers andmedieval and Renaissance philosophers, including St. Paul, Origen, Augustine, Aquinas, and Montaigne. In their coverage of the emergence of a new mechanistic conception of natAbstract: Traces the development of Western ideas about personal identity and reveals the larger intellectual trends, controversies, and ideas that have revolutionized the way we think about ourselves. Thistitle considers ancient Greece, where the ideas of Plato, Aristotle, and the materialistic atomists laid the groundwork for future theories.