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Personal Identity

Constitution View

(Text as at 26/11/2007 23:25:26)

*** THIS IS NOT THE LATEST VERSION OF THIS NOTE ***


(For the live version and other versions of this Note, see the tables at the end)

The Constitution View is that human persons1 are constituted by their bodies2 but are not identical to them, though a lot more needs to be said here. The primary source is Lynn Rudder Baker (starting with "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - Persons and Bodies: A Constitution View"), who appears to have a non-mereological3 view of constitution4 which is hard to unravel, involving the relation of one complete thing to another (or to a context). I also need to discuss her concern for primary kinds5, and the concept of having of properties6 derivatively. It’s unclear to me whether the brain7 has a special place for Baker; as far as I remember, she uniformly refers to “bodies”.


Live Version of this Archived Note

Date Length Title
06/07/2023 00:43:12 5250 Constitution View

Earlier Version of this Note

Date Length Title
12/08/2007 10:17:46 543 Constitution View

Table of the 7 Later Versions of this Note

Date Length Title
28/09/2022 10:24:58 5013 Constitution View
09/05/2022 17:15:22 4441 Constitution View
09/02/2021 21:59:02 4254 Constitution View
30/11/2019 22:58:05 2678 Constitution View
24/06/2018 16:32:10 4714 Constitution View
06/02/2018 23:35:31 3519 Constitution View
18/12/2010 19:58:05 746 Constitution View


This version updated Reading List for this Topic Parent Topic
26/11/2007 23:25:26 Constitution View Constitution


Summary of Notes Links from this Page

Body Brain Constitution Human Persons Kinds
Mereology Properties      

To access information, click on one of the links in the table above (if any).



Summary of Note Links to this Page

Abbreviations, 2, 3, 4 Animalism - Objections, 2 Baker Bodily Continuity Fetuses
Kinds Multiple Personality Disorder, 2 Olson Thesis - Current Position Thesis - Outline

To access information, click on one of the links in the table above (if any).



Text Colour Conventions

  1. Blue: Text by me; © Theo Todman, 2026



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