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Personal Identity
Replication
(Text as at 31/08/2017 19:35:02)
*** THIS IS NOT THE LATEST VERSION OF THIS NOTE ***
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Plug Note1
- Replication arises where an obvious copying process takes place. I would claim that Teletransportation2 falls under this head. I'm currently not clear whether there's a distinction between replication and duplication3, other than that duplication would seem to be restricted to doubling, whereas replication is more open-ended.
- Does amoebic division count as replication? When an amoeba divides, this is not a case of fission4 but of reproduction. So, there are three amoebae involved – the original one and the two daughters. This is not the same situation as in fission.
- The above said, does this case depend:
- on how the case is described5 and
- on how – empirically – the replication occurs?
- If the amoebic division occurs by budding of a daughter, so that we can continually "track" the parent, then we have straightforward reproduction. If the division is symmetrical, the case could be correctly described as replication, though maybe on a perdurantist6 view we originally had two coincident7 amoebae that both persist.
- We need to watch out for closest continuer8 descriptions of the case.
- I don’t really have a categorised reading-list for this Note; while there is one, it is empty. Any reading will be covered under a sister Note of this one: Reduplication Objections9.
- This is mostly a place-holder10.
In-Page Footnotes
Footnote 1:
- A number of my philosophical Notes are “promissory notes” currently only listing the books and papers (if any) I possess on the topic concerned.
- I’ve decided to add some text – whether by way of motivation, or something more substantive – for all these identified topics related to my Thesis.
- As I want to do this fairly quickly, the text may be confused or show surprising ignorance.
- The reader (if such exists) will have to bear with me, and display the principle of charity while this footnote exists.
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