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Personal Identity

Cartesian Ego

(Text as at 06/07/2023 00:43:12)

Plug Note¹

• Thesis Text:
  1. That we are Cartesian Egos has been a popular suggestion in answer to the question of what we are². It is presumably what those who first supported the Psychological View³ of personal identity had in mind, but may not be what the majority of philosophers these days – most of whom continue to hold some form of the PV – accept.
  2. Cartesian Egos are robustly criticised these days, but I’ve not been able to find any paper on JSTOR that has the term in its title. Maybe the papers I’ve read have defined it, but I’ve forgotten the precise definition. Anyway, I assume that the Ego is the “I⁴” that Descartes thought that introspection revealed. Presumably it is also supposed to be an immaterial substance, which is what Descartes thought he – a “thinking thing” – was.
  3. There is some overlap with Lynne Rudder Baker’s focus on a First-Person perspective⁵. Just what is it that’s supposed to look out on the world if not a Cartesian Ego? But Baker is not a dualist⁶ (at least not in the Cartesian₇ sense) – she thinks of us as belonging to the PERSON⁸ substantial⁹ kind¹⁰, presently constituted by¹¹ a human body¹². The person does not have separate existence to the human body, in the way in which the Cartesian Ego does – which is (allegedly) separable from the body (and capable of living in disembodied¹³ form). I think for Baker we are essentially embodied – just not by₁₄ the same body.
  4. With respect to the Cartesian Ego, we need to consider just how psychologically unified human persons¹⁵ are, and whether or not the mind is formally modular. In particular, is there massive modularity, or is there an executive? And is it the executive that is the Cartesian Ego?
  5. In this connection, I must consider psychological accounts of modularity₁₆ of mind from the identity perspective, rather than straying too far into philosophy of mind and psychology. This will feature mainly in discussion of objections to Animalism¹⁷.

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  Further Remarks:
  1. I say more about dualism in the Note¹⁸ thereon.
  2. There will be overlap between this Note and that on I¹⁹.

References

• Relevant Works cited above: No items to list.
• For a Page of Links²⁰ to this Note, Click here.
• Works on this topic that I’ve actually read²¹, include the following:-
  • Aeon:
    1. "Evans (Jules) - Dissolving the ego", 2017, External Link, Internal PDF Link
    2. "Jennings (Carolyn Dicey) - I attend, therefore I am", 2017, No Abstract, External Link, Internal PDF Link
  • General:
    1. "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - Christians Should Reject Mind-Body Dualism", 2004, Annotations
    2. "Bourgeois (Warren) - Modern Philosophers' Views on Persons: The Renaissance and the Early Moderns", 2003
    3. "Cargile (James) - Review of Hintikka - Cogito, Ergo Sum: Inference or Performance?", 1968, Internal PDF Link
    4. "Chalmers (David) - How Cartesian Dualism Might Have Been True", 1990, External Link, Internal PDF Link
    5. "Dennett (Daniel) - The Cartesian Theatre and 'Filling In' the Stream of Consciousness", 1997, No Abstract
    6. "Duncan (Matt) - I Think, Therefore I Persist", 2015, Annotations, External Link, Internal PDF Link
    7. "Fodor (Jerry) - The Modularity of Mind: An Essay on Faculty Psychology", 1996, Book
    8. "Parfit (Derek) - How We Are Not What We Believe", 1986
    9. "Parfit (Derek) - Nagel's Brain", 1986
• A further reading list might start with:-
  • General:
    1. "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - Beyond the Cartesian Self", 2011, External Link, Internal PDF Link, Read = 11%
    2. "Blackburn (Simon) - Has Kant Refuted Parfit?", 1997, Write-Up Note²², Read = 156%
    3. "Brink (David) - Rational Egoism and the Separateness of Persons", 1997, No Abstract
    4. "Carruthers (Peter) - Fragmentary consciousness and the Cartesian theatre", 2003
    5. "Flew (Antony) - The Cartesian Assumption", 1997, No Abstract
    6. "Flew (Antony) - The Cartesian Turn", 2000
    7. "Foster (John) - A Brief Defense of the Cartesian View", 2001
    8. "Glover (Jonathan) - I: Philosophy and Psychology of Personal Identity", 1988, Book, Read = 6%
    9. "Gorham (Geoffrey) - Descartes on Persistence and Temporal Parts", 2002, Read = 7%
    10. "Harrison (Jonathan) - The Embodiment of Mind or What Use Is Having a Body?", 1974, Internal PDF Link
    11. "Hawthorne (John) - Cartesian Dualism", 2007
    12. "Hintikka (Jaakko) - Cogito, Ergo Sum as an Inference and a Performance", 1963, Internal PDF Link, Read = 11%
    13. "Hintikka (Jaakko) - Cogito, Ergo Sum: Inference or Performance?", 1962, Internal PDF Link, Read = 8%
    14. "Hintikka (Jaakko) - The Cartesian Cogito, Epistemic Logic and Neuroscience: Some Surprising Interrelations", 1990, Internal PDF Link, Read = 10%
    15. "Kerr (Fergus) - The Modern Philosophy of Self in Recent Theology", 2000, External Link
    16. "Lowe (E.J.) - Identity, Composition, and the Simplicity of the Self", 2001
    17. "Lowe (E.J.) - Real Selves: Persons as a Substantial Kind", 1991
    18. "Parfit (Derek) - Experiences, subjects, and conceptual schemes", 1999, External Link, Internal PDF Link, Read = 20%
    19. "Swinburne (Richard) - From Mental/Physical Identity to Substance Dualism", 2007
    20. "Valberg (J.J.) - Imagination and the Cartesian Self", 2007
    21. "Van Fraassen (Bas) - Transcendence of the Ego (The Non-Existent Knight)", 2004, Internal PDF Link, Read = 5%
    22. "Wong (Hong Yu) - Cartesian Psychophysics", 2007, Read = 4%

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• For a list of Works that have been considered, but have missed the cut for inclusion in this Section of my Thesis, see the following:-
  1. Read: No items to list.
  2. Further Reading: No items to list.
• This is mostly a place-holder²³.

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In-Page Footnotes:

Footnote 7:

1. See her "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - Christians Should Reject Mind-Body Dualism".

Footnote 14:

1. Or, rather than “embodied by”, “embodied “as”?

Footnote 16:

1. For Modularity of Mind, see especially "Fodor (Jerry) - The Modularity of Mind: An Essay on Faculty Psychology".

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Table of the Previous 10 Versions of this Note:

Date	Length	Title
20/09/2022 11:24:00	4429	Cartesian Ego
11/04/2022 00:01:26	4048	Cartesian Ego
07/02/2021 19:46:34	3801	Cartesian Ego
09/09/2020 19:35:02	3271	Cartesian Ego
03/02/2018 23:47:02	3842	Cartesian Ego
14/07/2013 23:02:24	1635	Cartesian Ego
18/12/2010 19:58:05	613	Cartesian Ego
18/08/2009 20:39:50	603	Cartesian Ego
26/11/2007 23:25:26	277	Cartesian Ego
12/08/2007 10:17:46	166	Cartesian Ego

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Note last updated	Reading List for this Topic	Parent Topic
06/07/2023 00:43:12	Cartesian Ego	I

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Summary of Notes Referenced by This Note

Animalism - Objections	Awaiting Attention (Personal Identity)	Blackburn - Has Kant Refuted Parfit?	Body	Constitution
Disembodied Existence	Dualism	First-Person Perspective	I	Kinds
Note Links Explanation	Person	Plug Note Apologia	Psychological View	Substance
Unity of the Person	What are We?	Works Read - Explanation

To access information, click on one of the links in the table above.

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Summary of Notes Citing This Note

Aeon Papers, 2	Blackburn - Has Kant Refuted Parfit?	Descartes	I	Kant
Olson - What Are We? The Question	PID Note, Book & Paper Usage, 2, 3, 4, 5	Research - Proposal	Self-Consciousness	Souls
Thesis - Chapter 01 (Introduction)	Thesis - Chapter 02 (What are We?), 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8	Thesis - Chapter 03 (What is a Person?)	Thesis - Personal Identity, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8	Unity of the Person, 2
Website Generator Documentation - Functors, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

To access information, click on one of the links in the table above.

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Authors, Books & Papers Citing this Note

Author	Title	Medium	Extra Links	Read?
Blackburn (Simon)	Has Kant Refuted Parfit?	Paper
Bourgeois (Warren)	Modern Philosophers' Views on Persons: The Renaissance and the Early Moderns	Paper		Yes
Duncan (Matt)	I Think, Therefore I Persist	Paper		Yes
Fuller (Gary)	Functionalism and Personal Identity	Paper
Gorham (Geoffrey)	Descartes on Persistence and Temporal Parts	Paper
Hains (Brigid) & Hains (Paul)	Aeon: 2019+	Paper	2	Yes
Harre (Rom)	Persons and Selves	Paper
Johnston (Mark)	Fission and the Facts	Paper
Kerr (Fergus)	The Modern Philosophy of Self in Recent Theology	Paper
Lowe (E.J.)	Identity, Composition, and the Simplicity of the Self	Paper
Olson (Eric)	Persistence	Paper		Yes
Olson (Eric)	What Are We? The Question	Paper		Yes
Parfit (Derek)	Experiences, subjects, and conceptual schemes	Paper
Parfit (Derek)	How We Are Not What We Believe	Paper		Yes
Parfit (Derek)	Nagel's Brain	Paper	2, 3	Yes
Smith (Barry C.), Broks (Paul), Kennedy (A.L.) & Evans (Jules)	Audio: What Does It Mean to Be Me?	Paper		Yes
Snowdon (Paul)	Persons, Animals, Ourselves: Introduction	Paper		Yes
Strawson (Peter)	The Bounds of Sense - An Essay on Kant's Critique of Pure Reason	Book
Thomas (Janice L.)	Behaviourism	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Chapter 01 (Introduction)	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Chapter 02 (What Are We?)	Paper	2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8	Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Chapter 03 (What is a Person?)	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Descartes	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - I	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Personal Identity	Paper	2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8	Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Self-Consciousness	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Souls	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Unity of the Person	Paper	2	Yes

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References & Reading List

Author	Title	Medium	Source	Read?
Armstrong (David)	Searles's Neo-Cartesian Theory of Consciousness	Paper - By Subtopic	Philosophical Issues, Vol. 1, Consciousness, 1991, pp. 67-71	No
Ayer (A.J.)	Language, Truth and Logic	Book - By Subtopic (via Paper By Subtopic)	Ayer (A.J.) - Language, Truth and Logic	Yes
Ayer (A.J.)	The Self and the Common World	Paper - By Subtopic	Ayer - Language, Truth and Logic, Chapter 7	Yes
Baker (Lynne Rudder)	Beyond the Cartesian Self	Paper - Cited	Phenomenology and Mind, 1(5):48–57, 2011	11%
Baker (Lynne Rudder)	Christians Should Reject Mind-Body Dualism	Paper - Cited	Peterson (Michael) & Van Arragon (Raymond) - Contemporary Debates in Philosophy of Religion, 2004	Yes
Block (Ned), Flanagan (Owen) & Guzeldere (Guven)	The Nature of Consciousness	Book - By Subtopic (via Paper By Subtopic)	Block (Ned), Flanagan (Owen) & Guzeldere (Guven) - The Nature of Consciousness	49%
Block (Ned), Flanagan (Owen) & Guzeldere (Guven)	The Nature of Consciousness	Book - Cited (via Paper Cited)	Bibliographical details to be supplied	49%
Bourgeois (Warren)	Modern Philosophers' Views on Persons: The Renaissance and the Early Moderns	Paper - Cited	Bourgeois - Persons: What Philosophers Say about You, 2003, Chapter 5	Yes
Bourgeois (Warren)	Persons: What Philosophers Say about You	Book - Cited (via Paper Cited)	Bibliographical details to be supplied	15%
Brink (David)	Rational Egoism and the Separateness of Persons	Paper - By Subtopic	Dancy - Reading Parfit, 1997, Chapter 6	No
Cargile (James)	Review of Hintikka - Cogito, Ergo Sum: Inference or Performance?	Paper - Cited	Journal of Symbolic Logic, Vol. 33, No. 4 (Dec., 1968), pp. 615-616	Yes
Carruthers (Peter)	Fragmentary consciousness and the Cartesian theatre	Paper - By Subtopic	Carruthers - Phenomenal Consciousness	No
Carruthers (Peter)	Phenomenal Consciousness	Book - By Subtopic (via Paper By Subtopic)	Carruthers (Peter) - Phenomenal Consciousness	No
Chalmers (David)	How Cartesian Dualism Might Have Been True	Paper - Cited	Website	Yes
Cockburn (David), Ed.	Human Beings	Book - By Subtopic (via Paper By Subtopic)	Cockburn (David), Ed. - Human Beings	7%
Corcoran (Kevin), Ed.	Soul, Body and Survival: Essays on the Metaphysics of Human Persons	Book - By Subtopic (via Paper By Subtopic)	Corcoran (Kevin), Ed. - Soul, Body and Survival: Essays on the Metaphysics of Human Persons	99%
Dancy (Jonathan), Ed.	Reading Parfit	Book - By Subtopic (via Paper By Subtopic)	Dancy (Jonathan), Ed. - Reading Parfit	17%
Dennett (Daniel)	Consciousness Explained	Book - By Subtopic (via Paper By Subtopic)	Dennett (Daniel) - Consciousness Explained	2%
Dennett (Daniel)	Multiple Drafts Versus the Cartesian Theatre	Paper - By Subtopic	Daniel Dennett, Consciousness Explained, 1991, Chapter 5, pp. 101-138	No
Dennett (Daniel)	The Cartesian Theatre and 'Filling In' the Stream of Consciousness	Paper - Cited	Block, Flanagan & Guzeldere - The Nature of Consciousness	Yes
Dennett (Daniel) & Kinsbourne (Marcel)	Time and the Observer: The Where and When of Consciousness in the Brain	Paper - By Subtopic	Block, Flanagan & Guzeldere - The Nature of Consciousness (Behavioral and Brain Sciences 15 (2): 183-247)	Yes
Edwards (Paul), Ed.	Immortality	Book - By Subtopic (via Paper By Subtopic)	Edwards (Paul), Ed. - Immortality	4%
Evans (Jules)	Dissolving the ego	Paper - Cited	Aeon, 26 June, 2017	Yes
Flew (Antony)	Merely Mortal?	Book - By Subtopic (via Paper By Subtopic)	Flew (Antony) - Merely Mortal?	2%
Flew (Antony)	The Cartesian Assumption	Paper - By Subtopic	Edwards - Immortality, pp, 220-224	No
Flew (Antony)	The Cartesian Turn	Paper - By Subtopic	Flew - Merely Mortal? 2000, Chapter 6	No
Fodor (Jerry)	The Modularity of Mind: An Essay on Faculty Psychology	Book - Cited	Fodor (Jerry) - The Modularity of Mind: An Essay on Faculty Psychology	Yes
Foster (John)	A Brief Defense of the Cartesian View	Paper - By Subtopic	Corcoran - Soul, Body and Survival, Chapter 1	No
Foster (John)	The Immaterial Self: Defence of the Cartesian Dualist Conception of the Mind	Book - By Subtopic	Foster (John) - The Immaterial Self: Defence of the Cartesian Dualist Conception of the Mind	0%
Fowler (C.F.)	Descartes on the Human Soul: Philosophy and the Demands of Christian Doctrine	Book - By Subtopic	Fowler (C.F.) - Descartes on the Human Soul: Philosophy and the Demands of Christian Doctrine	No
Garrett (Brian)	Persons	Paper - By Subtopic	Routledge Encyclopaedia of Philosophy. London: Routledge. Garrett, Brian (1998). Persons.	Yes
Glover (Jonathan)	Alternatives to the Ego	Paper - By Subtopic	Glover - I: Philosophy and Psychology of Personal Identity, Chapter 10	No
Glover (Jonathan)	Freud's Ego	Paper - By Subtopic	Glover - I: Philosophy and Psychology of Personal Identity, Chapter 12	No
Glover (Jonathan)	I: Philosophy and Psychology of Personal Identity	Book - Cited	Glover (Jonathan) - I: Philosophy and Psychology of Personal Identity	6%
Glover (Jonathan)	The Ego	Paper - By Subtopic	Glover - I: Philosophy and Psychology of Personal Identity, Chapter 9	No
Grice (H. Paul)	Personal Identity	Paper - By Subtopic	Perry - Personal Identity	Yes
Griffiths (Paul)	Modularity, and the Psychoevolutionary Theory of Emotion	Paper - By Subtopic	Lycan - Mind and Cognition - An Anthology	No
Hains (Brigid) & Hains (Paul)	Aeon: C-F	Book - Cited (via Paper Cited)	Bibliographical details to be supplied	51%
Hains (Brigid) & Hains (Paul)	Aeon: G-K	Book - Cited (via Paper Cited)	Bibliographical details to be supplied	30%
Harrison (Jonathan)	The Embodiment of Mind or What Use Is Having a Body?	Paper - By Subtopic	Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, New Series, Vol. 74 (1973 - 1974), pp. 35-55	No
Hart (W.D.) & Yagisawa (Takashi)	Ghosts are Chilly	Paper - By Subtopic	Van Inwagen (Peter) & Zimmerman (Dean) - Persons: Human and Divine	No
Hawthorne (John)	Cartesian Dualism	Paper - By Subtopic	Van Inwagen (Peter) & Zimmerman (Dean) - Persons: Human and Divine	No
Heyes (Cecilia M.)	Theory of mind in nonhuman primates	Paper - By Subtopic	Behavioral and Brain Sciences 21 (1): 101-134. February 1998.	7%
Hintikka (Jaakko)	Cogito, Ergo Sum as an Inference and a Performance	Paper - By Subtopic	Philosophical Review, Vol. 72, No. 4 (Oct., 1963), pp. 487-496	11%
Hintikka (Jaakko)	Cogito, Ergo Sum: Inference or Performance?	Paper - By Subtopic	Philosophical Review, Vol. 71, No. 1 (Jan., 1962), pp. 3-32	8%
Hintikka (Jaakko)	The Cartesian Cogito, Epistemic Logic and Neuroscience: Some Surprising Interrelations	Paper - By Subtopic	Synthese, Vol. 83, No. 1, Epistemology and Cognition, Part III (Apr., 1990), pp. 133-157	10%
Hoffman (Joshua) & Rosenkrantz (Gary)	Souls and Bodies	Paper - By Subtopic	Hoffman & Rosenkrantz - Substance among other categories: Chapter 5, 1994	No
Honderich (Ted)	Consciousness as Existence	Paper - By Subtopic	O'Hear - Current Issues in Philosophy of Mind, 1998	No
Jennings (Carolyn Dicey)	I attend, therefore I am	Paper - Cited	Aeon, 10 July, 2017	Yes
Kerr (Fergus)	The Modern Philosophy of Self in Recent Theology	Paper - By Subtopic	Russell (Robert John), Murphy (Nancey), Meyering (Theo C.), Arbib (Michael A.) - Neuroscience and the Person	No
Lemmon (E.J.)	On Sentences Verifiable by Their Use	Paper - By Subtopic	Analysis, Vol. 22, No. 4 (Mar., 1962), pp. 86-89	No
Lowe (E.J.)	Real Selves: Persons as a Substantial Kind	Paper - By Subtopic	Cockburn - Human Beings	No
Lycan (William)	Mind and Cognition - An Anthology	Book - By Subtopic (via Paper By Subtopic)	Lycan (William) - Mind and Cognition - An Anthology	1%
Mackie (J.L.)	The Transcendental 'I'	Paper - By Subtopic	Mackie - Persons and Values: Selected Papers Volume II, 1985	No
McMahan (Jeff)	Identity	Paper - By Subtopic	Jeff McMahan - The Ethics of Killing: Problems at the Margins of Life, 2002, Chapter 1, pp. 3-94	No
McMahan (Jeff)	The Ethics of Killing: Problems at the Margins of Life	Book - By Subtopic (via Paper By Subtopic)	McMahan (Jeff) - The Ethics of Killing: Problems at the Margins of Life	No
O'Hear (Anthony)	Current Issues in Philosophy of Mind	Book - By Subtopic (via Paper By Subtopic)	O'Hear (Anthony) - Current Issues in Philosophy of Mind	No
Parfit (Derek)	How We Are Not What We Believe	Paper - By Subtopic	Parfit - Reasons and Persons, January 1986, pp. 219-245(27).	Yes
Parfit (Derek)	Reasons and Persons	Book - By Subtopic (via Paper By Subtopic)	Parfit (Derek) - Reasons and Persons	Yes
Perry (John), Ed.	Personal Identity	Book - By Subtopic (via Paper By Subtopic)	Perry (John), Ed. - Personal Identity	Yes
Peterson (Michael) & VanArragon (Raymond)	Contemporary Debates in Philosophy of Religion	Book - Cited (via Paper Cited)	Bibliographical details to be supplied	13%
Plantinga (Alvin)	Materialism and Christian Belief	Paper - By Subtopic	Van Inwagen (Peter) & Zimmerman (Dean) - Persons: Human and Divine	No
Russell (Robert John), Murphy (Nancey), Meyering (Theo C.), Arbib (Michael A.)	Neuroscience and the Person	Book - By Subtopic (via Paper By Subtopic)	Russell (Robert John), Murphy (Nancey), Meyering (Theo C.), Arbib (Michael A.) - Neuroscience and the Person	1%
Strawson (Galen)	The Self?	Book - By Subtopic (via Paper By Subtopic)	Strawson (Galen) - The Self?	4%
Swinburne (Richard)	From Mental/Physical Identity to Substance Dualism	Paper - By Subtopic	Van Inwagen (Peter) & Zimmerman (Dean) - Persons: Human and Divine	No
Thomas (Janice L.)	Descartes' arguments for dualism	Paper - By Subtopic	Thomas (Janice L.) - Mind and Person in the Philosophy of Religion	Yes
Thomas (Janice L.)	Mind and Person in the Philosophy of Religion	Book - By Subtopic (via Paper By Subtopic)	Thomas (Janice L.) - Mind and Person in the Philosophy of Religion	Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Cartesian Ego	Paper - By Subtopic		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Descartes - Real Distinction	Paper - By Subtopic		Yes
Tye (Michael)	Consciousness and Persons: Unity and Identity	Book - By Subtopic (via Paper By Subtopic)	Tye (Michael) - Consciousness and Persons: Unity and Identity	5%
Tye (Michael)	Persons and Personal Identity	Paper - By Subtopic	Tye - Consciousness and Persons, 2003, Chapter 6, pp. 133-164	No
Valberg (J.J.)	Dream, Death, and the Self	Book - By Subtopic (via Paper By Subtopic)	Valberg (J.J.) - Dream, Death, and the Self	1%
Valberg (J.J.)	Imagination and the Cartesian Self	Paper - By Subtopic	Valberg (J.J.) - Dream, Death, and the Self, 2007, Chapter 12	No
Van de Vate (Dwight)	Strawson's Concept of a Person	Paper - By Subtopic	Southern Journal of Philosophy, 1969, 9-24	No
Van Fraassen (Bas)	Transcendence of the Ego (The Non-Existent Knight)	Paper - By Subtopic	Ratio 17.4, Dec2004, p453-477, 25p	5%
Van Inwagen (Peter) & Zimmerman (Dean)	Persons: Human and Divine	Book - By Subtopic (via Paper By Subtopic)	Van Inwagen (Peter) & Zimmerman (Dean) - Persons: Human and Divine	3%
Wong (Hong Yu)	Cartesian Psychophysics	Paper - By Subtopic	Van Inwagen (Peter) & Zimmerman (Dean) - Persons: Human and Divine	4%

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Text Colour Conventions

1. Blue: Text by me; © Theo Todman, 2025

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