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Personal Identity

Change

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

Plug Note¹

• Thesis Text:
  1. Change is one of the central problems that questions of identity address. Just what changes can an object undergo while remaining the same thing?
  2. If an individual thing² is to Persist³, this is in the face of Change – either (in the absence of Essentialism⁴) to its Parts⁵ – by losing or gaining some – or to its Properties⁶, the problem of Temporary Intrinsics⁷.
  3. As is indicated above, the changes that can affect the persistence of an Individual are intrinsic to it. Extrinsic (relational) property changes do not affect persistence, being ‘mere Cambridge Changes’. Or so is the orthodox position, but might have been disputed by Lynne Rudder Baker⁸. For example, if the art-world changes its mind about a urinal being a work of art, is there an ontological⁹ change?
  4. Just two further things for now.
     1. Firstly, if I understand things aright, change is something that happens to substances¹⁰, and the question of identity is whether or not that substance remains the same substance after some change. Change is not relevant (or at least persistence through change isn’t relevant) under (at least) a couple of philosophical positions:-
        1. If we adopt a mereological¹¹ essentialist¹² position, whereby the things that exist are regions of space-time and their contents. This turn of phrase may sound too much like the “generous ontology¹³”, which answers the question “what exists” as “any region of spacetime, and whatever is in it”, which includes all sorts of spatio-temporally gerrymandered objects. Here, I refer only to objects as are ordinarily taken to exist, like dogs and tennis balls, but with the restriction that they have all their parts essentially, and cease to exist when they lose a part. Then, a thing just is a collection of particles, and if one of these is lost or destroyed, then so is the thing. This leads to the denial that there are any ordinary things, like chairs or animals, as they are always losing and gaining parts, and so only exist as the same thing momentarily.
        2. If we adopt a perdurantist¹⁴ account of persistence, the things that exist are space-time worms. A thing is not wholly present at a time, only its temporal stage is. The thing as a whole exists timelessly. Does the thing therefore change? Maybe not, but questions of persistence still apply, though maybe only pragmatically. Just what aggregate of stages are usefully described as a persisting thing? A four-dimensional naturalist might insist that exemplars of natural kinds – particularly organisms – have a greater claim to existence than arbitrary assemblages of stages.
           
     2. A second important matter is that (on many accounts) it is the rate of change that is critical. Everyone seems to agree that you cannot just swap out all the parts of a thing at the same time and claim that you have the same thing, whereas the assumption is that a thing can persist through change (pace the views in the bullet above) provided the changes occur slowly enough and piecemeal enough. After all, organisms¹⁵ replace all their parts over time (it is said) yet remain the same organism (ditto). It strikes me that there’s a degree of vagueness¹⁶ about how quickly the changes can take place without violating the persistence conditions of the object. Also, in the case of organisms, historically it has been supposed that the changes would take place naturally, but transplant¹⁷ surgery allows unnatural change. The transplanted organ will either by assimilated or rejected by the organism. If it is assimilated, especially if it’s hidden from view, we don’t feel any qualms about saying that is has become part of the organism, which has persisted through the change. I suppose we’d also get used to the successful transplantation of visible parts, like limbs. Things get difficult with heads, in deciding what has been transplanted onto what – the head or the body – and therefore what has persisted through the change. Maybe it’s a case of Fusion¹⁸.

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  Further Remarks:
  1. I’m not clear whether there will be much extra to say here other than what is covered – or should be covered – under the heads of persistence¹⁹ and such like. However, I’ve had a go!

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. "Aeon - Video - Not the same river. Not the same man.", 2021, External Link
  • Cambridge Change:
    1. "Noonan (Harold) - The Reduplication Problem", 2003, Annotations
    2. "Olson (Eric) - What Are We? Bundles", 2007, Write-Up Note²², Internal PDF Link
    3. "Zimmerman (Dean) - Bodily Resurrection: The Falling Elevator Model Revisited", 2010, Annotations, Internal PDF Link
  • General:
    1. "Arnold (Keith) - The Subject of Radical Change", 1978, Internal PDF Link
    2. "Carter (William) - How to Change Your Mind", 1989, Annotations
    3. "Lear (Jonathan) - Change", 1988, No Abstract
    4. "LePoidevin (Robin) - Change", 2003
    5. "Sider (Ted) - The Four-Dimensional Picture", 2003, Annotations
• A further reading list might start with:-
  • Cambridge Change:
    1. "Denkel (Arda) - Theon’s Tale: Does a Cambridge Change Result in a Substantial Change?", 1995, Internal PDF Link
    2. "Noonan (Harold) - The Only X and Y Principle", 1985, Internal PDF Link, Read = 17%
    3. "Ujvari (Marta) - Cambridge Change and Sortal Essentialism", 2004, Internal PDF Link
  • General:
    1. "Aune (Bruce) - Changing Things", 1985, Read = 4%
    2. "Baxter (Donald L.M.) - Loose Identity and Becoming Something Else", 2001, Internal PDF Link, Read = 11%
    3. "Bordes (Montse) - Complementary Properties and Persisting Objects: Ontological Constraints on the Semantics of Sentences of the Type 'O is phi at T'", 1999, Internal PDF Link
    4. "Bottani (Andrea C.) - The Puzzle of Change", 2005, Internal PDF Link
    5. "Brody (Baruch) - The Theory of Change", 1980
    6. "Browning (Douglas) - Sameness Through Change and the Coincidence of Properties", 1988, Internal PDF Link
    7. "Campbell (Scott) - Rapid Psychological Change", 2004, Internal PDF Link, Read = 11%
    8. "Carter (William) - Change", 1990
    9. "Castaneda (Hector-Neri) - The Logic of Change, Action, and Norms", 1966, Internal PDF Link
    10. "Doyle (Robert O.) - Change (Being and Becoming)", 2018, No Abstract, External Link, Internal PDF Link
    11. "Godfrey-Smith (William) - Change and Actuality", 1980, No Abstract, Internal PDF Link
    12. "Haslanger (Sally) - Persistence, Change, and Explanation", 1989, Internal PDF Link
    13. "Heller (Mark) - Things Change", 1992, Internal PDF Link
    14. "Hinchliff (Mark) - The Puzzle of Change", 1996, Internal PDF Link, Read = 13%
    15. "LePoidevin (Robin) - Change, Cause and Contradiction: TOC, Introduction, Synopsis & Bibliography", 1991, No Abstract
    16. "LePoidevin (Robin) & Mellor (D.H.) - Time, Change, and the 'Indexical Fallacy'", 1987, Internal PDF Link
    17. "Lowe (E.J.) - How Real Is Substantial Change?", 2006, Internal PDF Link, Read = 6%
    18. "Lowe (E.J.) - Identity Over Time and Change Of Composition", 2002
    19. "Lowe (E.J.) - Substantial Change and Spatiotemporal Coincidence", 2002
    20. "Lowe (E.J.) - The Problems of Intrinsic Change: Rejoinder to Lewis", 1988, No Abstract
    21. "Mellor (D.H.) - Change", 1998
    22. "Mortensen (Chris) - Change and Inconsistency", 2015, External Link, Internal PDF Link, Read = 14%
    23. "Oderberg (David) - Instantaneous Change without Instants", 2006, External Link, Internal PDF Link
    24. "Oderberg (David) - Temporal Parts and the Possibility of Change", 2004, Internal PDF Link
    25. "Smith (Joseph Wayne) - Time, Change and Contradiction", 1990, Internal PDF Link
    26. "Stern (David G.) - Heraclitus' and Wittgenstein's River Images - Stepping Twice Into The Same River", 1991, Internal PDF Link, Read = 5%
  
  

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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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Table of the Previous 12 Versions of this Note:

Date	Length	Title
20/09/2022 11:24:00	6765	Change
04/05/2022 11:19:41	5365	Change
02/07/2021 20:32:38	5082	Change
11/02/2021 11:29:46	4746	Change
12/09/2020 13:16:19	4454	Change
24/06/2018 16:32:10	5306	Change
14/01/2017 20:18:14	4230	Change
14/07/2013 23:02:24	3052	Change
18/08/2009 20:39:50	410	Change
14/08/2009 13:24:58	245	Change
26/11/2007 23:25:26	84	Change
10/11/2007 13:17:46	81	Change

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Note last updated	Reading List for this Topic	Parent Topic
06/07/2023 00:43:12	Change	Logic of Identity

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Summary of Notes Referenced by This Note

Awaiting Attention (Personal Identity)	Essentialism	Fusion	Individual	Mereology
Note Links Explanation	Olson - What Are We? Bundles	Ontology	Organisms	Perdurantism
Persistence	Plug Note Apologia	Properties	Substance	Temporary Intrinsics
Transplants	Vagueness	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

Baker - Persons in the Material World	Causality	Closest Continuer	Continuity	Criteria of Identity
Essentialism	Exdurantism, 2, 3	Olson - What Are We? The Question	Perdurantism	Persistence
PID Note, Book & Paper Usage, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7	Properties	Research - Focus	Similarity	Temporary Intrinsics, 2, 3
Thesis - Chapter 04 (Basic Metaphysical Issues), 2, 3	Thesis - Chapter 05 (Persistence and Time), 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14	Thesis - Chapter 07 (The Constitution View and Arguments for It)	Thesis - Chapter 12 (Conclusion)	Thesis - Personal Identity, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15
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?
Baker (Lynne Rudder)	Persons in the Material World	Paper		Yes
Doyle (Robert O.)	N/A	Author
Forbes (Graeme A.)	How to think about time	Paper		Yes
Noonan (Harold)	The Only X and Y Principle	Paper
Noonan (Harold)	The Reduplication Problem	Paper		Yes
Olson (Eric)	What Are We? The Question	Paper		Yes
Sider (Ted)	The Four-Dimensional Picture	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Causality	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Chapter 04 (Basic Metaphysical Issues)	Paper	2, 3	Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Chapter 05 (Persistence and Time)	Paper	2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14	Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Chapter 07 (The Constitution View and Arguments for It)	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Chapter 12 (Conclusion)	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Closest Continuer	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Continuity	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Criteria of Identity	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Essentialism	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Exdurantism	Paper	2, 3	Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Perdurantism	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Persistence	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Personal Identity	Paper	2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15	Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Properties	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Similarity	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Temporary Intrinsics	Paper	2, 3	Yes
Zimmerman (Dean)	Bodily Resurrection: The Falling Elevator Model Revisited	Paper	2	Yes

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References & Reading List

Author	Title	Medium	Source	Read?
Aeon	Video - Not the same river. Not the same man.	Paper - Cited	Aeon, 07 July 2021	Yes
Arnold (Keith)	The Subject of Radical Change	Paper - By Subtopic	Philosophical Studies, Vol. 33, No. 4 (May, 1978), pp. 395-401	Yes
Aune (Bruce)	Changing Things	Paper - By Subtopic	Aune (Bruce) - Metaphysics: The Elements, Chapter 5	4%
Aune (Bruce)	Metaphysics: The Elements	Book - By Subtopic (via Paper By Subtopic)	Aune (Bruce) - Metaphysics: The Elements	4%
Baxter (Donald L.M.)	Loose Identity and Becoming Something Else	Paper - By Subtopic	Nous, Dec2001, Vol. 35 Issue 4, p592, 10p	11%
Bottani (Andrea C.)	The Puzzle of Change	Paper - By Subtopic	Dialectica, 59.4, December 2005, pp. 381-400(20). Introduction.	No
Brody (Baruch)	Identity and Essence	Book - By Subtopic (via Paper By Subtopic)	Brody (Baruch) - Identity and Essence	No
Brody (Baruch)	The Theory of Change	Paper - By Subtopic	Brody - Identity and Essence, 1980, Chapter 4	No
Browning (Douglas)	Sameness Through Change and the Coincidence of Properties	Paper - By Subtopic	Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, Vol. 49, No. 1, Sep., 1988, pp. 103-121	No
Campbell (Scott)	Rapid Psychological Change	Paper - By Subtopic	Analysis; Jul2004, Vol. 64 Issue 3, p256-264, 9p	11%
Carter (William)	Change	Paper - By Subtopic	Carter - The Elements of Metaphysics, 1990, Chapter 6	No
Carter (William)	How to Change Your Mind	Paper - By Subtopic	Canadian Journal of Philosophy, Vol. 19, No. 1, March 1989, pp. 1-14	Yes
Carter (William)	The Elements of Metaphysics	Book - By Subtopic (via Paper By Subtopic)	Carter (William) - The Elements of Metaphysics	No
Castaneda (Hector-Neri)	The Logic of Change, Action, and Norms	Paper - By Subtopic	Journal of Philosophy, Vol. 63, No. 9 (Apr., 1966), pp. 231-234	No
Coope (Ursula)	Why Does Aristotle Say That There Is No Time without Change?	Paper - By Subtopic	Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, Vol. 101 (2001), pp. 359-367	No
Denkel (Arda)	Theon’s Tale: Does a Cambridge Change Result in a Substantial Change?	Paper - Cited	Analysis 55.3, July 1995, pp. 166–170	No
Dennett (Daniel)	Brainstorms - Philosophical Essays on Mind and Psychology	Book - By Subtopic (via Paper By Subtopic)	Dennett (Daniel) - Brainstorms - Philosophical Essays on Mind and Psychology	43%
Dennett (Daniel)	How to Change Your Mind	Paper - By Subtopic	Dennett - Brainstorms - Philosophical Essays on Mind and Psychology, Chapter 16, 1977	No
Doyle (Robert O.)	Change (Being and Becoming)	Paper - By Subtopic	Personal Website	No
Gallois (Andre)	Occasions of Identity : a Study in the Metaphysics of Persistence, Change, and Sameness	Book - Referenced	Gallois (Andre) - Occasions of Identity : a Study in the Metaphysics of Persistence, Change, and Sameness	No
Galton (Antony)	On the Process of Coming into Existence	Paper - By Subtopic	The Monist, Vol. 89, No. 3, Coming into Being and Passing Away (July 2006), pp. 294-312	6%
Haslanger (Sally)	Persistence, Change, and Explanation	Paper - By Subtopic	Haslanger (Sally) & Kurtz (Roxanne) - Persistence : Contemporary Readings	No
Haslanger (Sally) & Kurtz (Roxanne), Eds.	Persistence : Contemporary Readings	Book - By Subtopic (via Paper By Subtopic)	Haslanger (Sally) & Kurtz (Roxanne), Eds. - Persistence : Contemporary Readings	30%
Heller (Mark)	Things Change	Paper - By Subtopic	Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, Vol. 52, No. 3 (Sep., 1992), pp. 695-704	No
Hinchliff (Mark)	The Puzzle of Change	Paper - By Subtopic	Haslanger (Sally) & Kurtz (Roxanne) - Persistence : Contemporary Readings	13%
LaPorte (Joseph)	Natural Kinds and Conceptual Change	Book - By Subtopic	LaPorte (Joseph) - Natural Kinds and Conceptual Change	No
Lear (Jonathan)	Aristotle - The Desire to Understand	Book - By Subtopic (via Paper By Subtopic)	Lear (Jonathan) - Aristotle - The Desire to Understand	10%
Lear (Jonathan)	Change	Paper - By Subtopic	Lear - Aristotle - The Desire to Understand, 1988	Yes
LePoidevin (Robin)	Change	Paper - By Subtopic	LePoidevin - Travels in Four Dimensions: The Enigmas of Space and Time, 2003, Chapter 2	Yes
LePoidevin (Robin)	Change, Cause and Contradiction: TOC, Introduction, Synopsis & Bibliography	Paper - By Subtopic	LePoidevin - Change, Cause and Contradiction: a defence of the tenseless theory of time, 1991, Introduction, pp. 1-11	No
LePoidevin (Robin)	Travels in Four Dimensions: The Enigmas of Space and Time	Book - By Subtopic (via Paper By Subtopic)	LePoidevin (Robin) - Travels in Four Dimensions: The Enigmas of Space and Time	26%
LePoidevin (Robin) & Mellor (D.H.)	Time, Change, and the 'Indexical Fallacy'	Paper - By Subtopic	Mind, Vol. 96, No. 384, Oct., 1987, pp. 534-538	No
Lombard (Lawrence B.)	The Doctrine of Temporal Parts and the 'No-Change' Objection	Paper - By Subtopic	Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 54.2 June 1994, pp. 365-372	No
Lowe (E.J.)	A Survey of Metaphysics	Book - By Subtopic (via Paper By Subtopic)	Lowe (E.J.) - A Survey of Metaphysics	No
Lowe (E.J.)	How Real Is Substantial Change?	Paper - By Subtopic	The Monist, Vol. 89, No. 3, Coming into Being and Passing Away (July 2006), pp. 275-293	6%
Lowe (E.J.)	Identity Over Time and Change Of Composition	Paper - By Subtopic	Lowe - A Survey of Metaphysics, Chapter 2	No
Lowe (E.J.)	Qualitative Change and the Doctrine Of Temporal Parts	Paper - By Subtopic	Lowe - A Survey of Metaphysics, Chapter 3	No
Lowe (E.J.)	Substantial Change and Spatiotemporal Coincidence	Paper - By Subtopic	Lowe - A Survey of Metaphysics, Chapter 4	No
Lowe (E.J.)	The Paradoxes Of Motion and the Possibility of Change	Paper - By Subtopic	Lowe - A Survey of Metaphysics, Chapter 16	No
Lowe (E.J.)	The Problems of Intrinsic Change: Rejoinder to Lewis	Paper - By Subtopic	Analysis 48, 1988, pp. 72-77	No
Meincke (Anne Sophie)	The Disappearance of Change: Towards a Process Account of Persistence	Paper - By Subtopic	Forthcoming (as of November 2018) in: International Journal of Philosophical Studies	6%
Mellor (D.H.)	Change	Paper - By Subtopic	Mellor - Real Time II, 1998, Chapter 8, pp. 84-96	No
Mellor (D.H.)	Change	Paper - By Subtopic	Mellor - Real Time, 1981, Chapter 7	No
Mellor (D.H.)	Real Time	Book - By Subtopic (via Paper By Subtopic)	Mellor (D.H.) - Real Time	11%
Mellor (D.H.)	Real Time II	Book - By Subtopic (via Paper By Subtopic)	Mellor (D.H.) - Real Time II	22%
Mortensen (Chris)	Change and Inconsistency	Paper - By Subtopic	Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy, 2002-6	14%
Oderberg (David)	Instantaneous Change without Instants	Paper - By Subtopic	C. Paterson and M.S. Pugh (eds), Analytical Thomism: Traditions in Dialogue (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2006): 101-18	No
Oderberg (David)	Temporal Parts and the Possibility of Change	Paper - By Subtopic	Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 69 (2004): 686-708	No
Olson (Eric)	What are We? A Study of Personal Ontology	Book - Referencing (via Paper Referencing)	Bibliographical details to be supplied	Yes
Olson (Eric)	What Are We? The Question	Paper - Referencing	What Are We? A Study in Personal Ontology, Chapter 1 (November 2007: Oxford University Press.)	Yes
Paul (L.A.)	Temporal Experience	Paper - By Subtopic	The Journal of Philosophy, Vol. 107, No. 7 (July 2010), pp. 333-359	No
Prior (Arthur N.)	Changes in Events and Changes in Things	Paper - By Subtopic	Prior - Papers on Time and Tense, Chapter 1	17%
Prior (Arthur N.)	Papers on Time and Tense	Book - By Subtopic (via Paper By Subtopic)	Prior (Arthur N.) - Papers on Time and Tense	1%
Shoemaker (Sydney)	Identity, Cause and Mind	Book - By Subtopic (via Paper By Subtopic)	Shoemaker (Sydney) - Identity, Cause and Mind	5%
Shoemaker (Sydney)	Time Without Change	Paper - By Subtopic	Shoemaker - Identity, Cause and Mind	No
Smith (Joseph Wayne)	Time, Change and Contradiction	Paper - By Subtopic	Australasian Journal of Philosophy, Vol. 68, No. 2: June 1990	No
Stern (David G.)	Heraclitus' and Wittgenstein's River Images - Stepping Twice Into The Same River	Paper - By Subtopic	The Monist, Vol. 74, No. 4, Heraclitus (October 1991), pp. 579-604	5%
Sternberg (Robert J.), Chawarski (Marek C.) & Allbritton (David W.)	If You Changed Your Name and Appearance to Those of Elvis Presley, Who Would You Be? Historical Features in Categorization	Paper - By Subtopic	American Journal of Psychology 111, No. 3 (Autumn, 1998), pp. 327-351	No
Sullivan (Meghan)	Change We Can Believe In (and Assert)	Paper - By Subtopic	Noûs, Vol. 48:3 (2014) 474–495	No
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Change	Paper - By Subtopic		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Chapter 04 (Basic Metaphysical Issues)	Paper - Referencing		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Closest Continuer	Paper - Referencing		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Personal Identity	Paper - Referencing		Yes
Ujvari (Marta)	Cambridge Change and Sortal Essentialism	Paper - By Subtopic	Metaphysica 5.2 (2004), pp. 25-34	No
Varzi (Achille)	Change, Temporal Parts, and the Argument from Vagueness	Paper - By Subtopic	Dialectica 59:4 (2005), 485–498	No
Vranas (Peter B.M.)	Do Cry Over Spilt Milk: Possibly You Can Change The Past	Paper - By Subtopic	Monist, July 2005, Vol. 88 Issue 3, p370-387, 18p	No
Wasserman (Ryan)	The Argument from Temporary Intrinsics	Paper - By Subtopic	Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 81, Number 3, September 01, 2003, pp. 413-419(7)	No
Weatherson (Brian)	Intrinsic Properties and Combinatorial Principles	Paper - By Subtopic	Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 63 (2001): 365-380	No

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