Theo Todman's Web Page - Notes Pages
Personal Identity
Constitution View
(Text as at 18/12/2010 19:58:05)
*** 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”.
This is mostly a place-holder8. Currently, just see the categorised reading-list (if any).
Live Version of this Archived Note
Table of the 2 Earlier Versions of this Note
Table of the 6 Later Versions of this Note
Summary of Notes Links from this Page
To access information, click on one of the links in the table above (if any).
Summary of Note Links to this Page
| Animalism - Objections, 2 |
Artifacts, 2 |
Baker, 2, 3 |
Bodily Continuity, 2, 3 |
Computers |
| Fetuses |
Human Beings |
Hylomorphism |
Intermittent Objects |
Kinds, 2 |
| Multiple Personality Disorder |
Olson, 2 |
Origins |
Reductionism |
Simple View |
| Statue and the Clay |
Thesis - Chapter 03 (What is a Person?), 2, 3, 4, 5 |
Thesis - Chapter 07 (The Constitution View and Arguments for It), 2, 3, 4, 5 |
Thesis - Current Position |
Thesis - Current Stance, 2 |
| Thesis - Outline |
Thinking Animal Argument |
Unity of the Person |
Zombies |
|
To access information, click on one of the links in the table above (if any).
Text Colour Conventions
- Blue: Text by me; © Theo Todman, 2026