# Personal Identity **Domain:** Philosophy / Law / Continuity Governance **Doc Type:** Canonical Concept Node **Maturity:** Contested and Operationally Important **Related:** [[wiki/Psychological Continuity|Psychological Continuity]], [[wiki/Identity-Bearing Invariants|Identity-Bearing Invariants]], [[wiki/Personal Continuity Ontology|Personal Continuity Ontology]], [[wiki/Continuity Due Process|Continuity Due Process]] --- ## Definition **Personal identity** concerns what makes a person the same person across time and change. Competing accounts emphasize bodily continuity, psychological organization, memory, causal lineage, social and legal recognition, or combinations of these. ## Continuity Context Digital reconstruction forces the distinction between resemblance, succession, duplication, and continuation. A system may preserve voice, memory claims, or behavioral style without resolving whether it is the same subject, a descendant, a copy, or an instrument representing the source. ## Governance Context Continuity systems require explicit criteria for consent, standing, inheritance, custody, forked instances, revocation, and evidentiary claims. Technical boot success is not identity proof.