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Personal Identity

Kant

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

Plug Note¹

• Thesis Text:
  1. Text to be supplied.

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  Further Remarks:
  1. Kant’s views on Personal Identity aren’t central to my concerns, but I need to know something of what the great man thought on the subject.
  2. I also need to get a handle on Kant’s thought generally₂, given its importance in philosophy.
  3. Despite having read the two works below on Kant’s thought on Personal Identity, admittedly well over a decade ago, I can remember nothing about it, so this Note is currently even more pathetic than most³.
  4. Mostly, Kant’s thought in this area seems to be a rejection of Cartesian⁴ ideas of the Self⁵. Also, it seems that Kant’s thought on this topic – as in much else – is a reaction to Hume⁶’s.

References

• Relevant Works cited above: No items to list.
• For a Page of Links⁷ to this Note, Click here.
• Works on this topic that I’ve actually read⁸, include the following:-
  • Aeon:
    1. "Doyle (Tom) - Physician, invade thyself", 2023, External Link
  • General:
    1. "Blackburn (Simon) - Review of Kuehn on Kant", 2001, Annotations, No Abstract, External Link, Internal PDF Link
    2. "Blackburn (Simon) - Review of Umberto Eco: Kant and the Platypus: Essays on Language and Cognition", 2000, Annotations, External Link, Internal PDF Link
    3. "Kant (Immanuel) - Section II: Transition From Popular Morality To Metaphysics of Morals", 1785, No Abstract
    4. "Kant (Immanuel) - The Impossibility of an Ontological Proof of the Existence of God", 1781
    5. "Strathern (Paul) - Kant in 90 Minutes", 1996, Book
  • Kant on Personal Identity:
    1. "Cassam (Quassim) - Kant and Reductionism", 1989, Annotations, Internal PDF Link
    2. "Longuenesse (Beatrice) - Kant on the identity of persons", 2007, Annotations, Internal PDF Link
• A further reading list might start with:-
  • General:
    1. "Bennett (Jonathan) - The Simplicity of the Soul", 1967, Internal PDF Link
    2. "Gardner (Sebastian) - Kant", 1999
    3. "Guyer (Paul) - The Cambridge Companion to Kant", 1992, Book
    4. "Kitcher (Patricia) - Kant on Self-Identity", 1982, Internal PDF Link
    5. "Kitcher (Patricia) - Kant's Paralogisms", 1982, Internal PDF Link
    6. "Korner (Stephan) - Kant", 1977, Book
    7. "Korsgaard (Christine) - Self-Constitution in the Ethics of Plato and Kant", 1999, Internal PDF Link
    8. "Strawson (Peter) - The Bounds of Sense - An Essay on Kant's Critique of Pure Reason", 1966, Book, Read = 1%
    9. "Stroud (Barry) - Transcendental Arguments", 1968, No Abstract, Internal PDF Link, Read = 7%
    10. "Taylor (Charles) - The Validity of Transcendental Arguments", 1979, Internal PDF Link, Read = 7%
    11. "Varden (Helga) - Kant and Lying to the Murderer at the Door - One More Time: Kant’s Legal Philosophy and Lies to Murderers and Nazis", 2010, External Link, Internal PDF Link
  • Kant on Personal Identity:
    1. "Ameriks (Karl) - Identity", 2000
    2. "Blackburn (Simon) - Has Kant Refuted Parfit?", 1997, Write-Up Note⁹, Read = 156%
    3. "Korsgaard (Christine) - Personal Identity and the Unity of Agency: A Kantian Response to Parfit", 1996, Footnote₁₀
    4. "Trigg (Roger) - Ideas of Human Nature: Kant", 1999, No Abstract

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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-holder¹¹.

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In-Page Footnotes:

Footnote 2:

• Especially so, as I skipped the BA lectures on Kant at Birkbeck.
• Incidentally, I seem to have two other Notes on Kant:-
  • One from Heythrop, and
  • One, of historical interest only, showing my prejudices prior to training in philosophy, from my Tractatus.

Footnote 10:

• Presumably the same as "Korsgaard (Christine) - Personal Identity and the Unity of Agency: A Kantian Response to Parfit".

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Table of the Previous 6 Versions of this Note:

Date	Length	Title
20/09/2022 11:24:00	2905	Kant
14/02/2021 12:51:50	2402	Kant
26/09/2020 19:58:05	1817	Kant
05/03/2018 10:45:07	2613	Kant
14/03/2015 11:36:58	947	Kant
18/12/2010 19:58:05	80	Kant

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Note last updated	Reading List for this Topic	Parent Topic
06/07/2023 00:43:12	Kant	General Surveys

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Summary of Notes Referenced by This Note

Awaiting Attention (Personal Identity)	Blackburn - Has Kant Refuted Parfit?	Cartesian Ego	Hume	Kant
Kant (2)	Note Links Explanation	Plug Note Apologia	Self	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	Olson - What Are We? Animals	Olson - What Are We? The Question	PID Note, Book & Paper Usage, 2, 3, 4, 5	RIP: The Royal Institute of Philosophy - Podcasts
Status: Personal Identity (2025 - December)	Status: Priority Task List (2026 - February)	Status: Summary (2025 - December)	Thesis - Chapter 01 (Introduction), 2, 3, 4, 5	Thesis - Personal Identity, 2, 3
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?
Calarco (Matthew)	Thinking Through Animals: Identity, Difference, Indistinction	Book		Yes
Godfrey-Smith (Peter)	Philosophers and other animals	Paper		Yes
Hains (Brigid) & Hains (Paul)	Aeon: 2019+	Paper	2	Yes
Korsgaard (Christine)	Personal Identity and the Unity of Agency: A Kantian Response to Parfit	Paper
Noller (Jorg)	Person	Paper
Olson (Eric)	What Are We? Animals	Paper		Yes
Olson (Eric)	What Are We? The Question	Paper		Yes
RIP	The Royal Institute of Philosophy - Podcasts	Paper
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Chapter 01 (Introduction)	Paper	2, 3, 4, 5	Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Personal Identity	Paper	2, 3	Yes

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References & Reading List

Author	Title	Medium	Source	Read?
Ameriks (Karl)	Identity	Paper - By Subtopic	Ameriks - Kant's theory of mind : an analysis of the paralogisms of pure reason, 2000 (Chap. 4)	No
Aristotelian Society	Proceedings: 1978-1979	Book - By Subtopic (via Paper By Subtopic)	Aristotelian Society - Proceedings: 1978-1979	2%
Bennett (Jonathan)	The Simplicity of the Soul	Paper - Cited	Journal of Philosophy 64, No. 20, Sixty-Fourth Annual Meeting of the American Philosophical Association, Eastern Division, Oct. 26, 1967, pp. 648-660	No
Blackburn (Simon)	Has Kant Refuted Parfit?	Paper - By Subtopic	Dancy - Reading Parfit, 1997, Chapter 9	78%
Blackburn (Simon)	Review of Kuehn on Kant	Paper - By Subtopic	New Republic, 23 April 2001	Yes
Blackburn (Simon)	Review of Umberto Eco: Kant and the Platypus: Essays on Language and Cognition	Paper - By Subtopic	Personal Website; Disputatio, 8 May 2000	Yes
BonJour (Laurence)	In Defense of Pure Reason: A Rationalist Account of A Priori Justification	Book - By Subtopic	BonJour (Laurence) - In Defense of Pure Reason: A Rationalist Account of A Priori Justification	2%
Cassam (Quassim)	Kant and Reductionism	Paper - By Subtopic	Review of Metaphysics 43 (Sept. 1989), pp. 72-106	Yes
Cassam (Quassim)	Mind, Knowledge and Reality: Themes from Kant	Paper - By Subtopic	O'Hear - Current Issues in Philosophy of Mind, 1998	No
Dancy (Jonathan), Ed.	Reading Parfit	Book - By Subtopic (via Paper By Subtopic)	Dancy (Jonathan), Ed. - Reading Parfit	17%
Doyle (Tom)	Physician, invade thyself	Paper - Cited	Aeon, 10 October 2023	Yes
Edwards (Paul), Ed.	Immortality	Book - By Subtopic (via Paper By Subtopic)	Edwards (Paul), Ed. - Immortality	4%
Flikschuh (Katrin)	The Arc of Personhood - Menkiti and Kant	Paper - By Subtopic	Journal of the American Philosophical Association (2016) pp. 437-455	6%
Fowler (Charlotte)	Kant and God	Paper - By Subtopic	Heythrop Lecture Hand-out, 2010	57%
Fowler (Charlotte)	Kantian Ethics	Paper - By Subtopic	Heythrop Lecture Hand-out, 2010	11%
Fowler (Charlotte)	The Ethics of Immanuel Kant: Beyond the Groundwork	Paper - By Subtopic	Heythrop Lecture Hand-out, 2010	17%
Gardner (Sebastian)	Kant	Paper - By Subtopic	Grayling - Philosophy 2 - Further Through the Subject, Chapter 10	No
Grayling (Anthony), Ed.	Philosophy 1 - A Guide Through the Subject	Book - By Subtopic (via Paper By Subtopic)	Grayling (Anthony), Ed. - Philosophy 1 - A Guide Through the Subject	28%
Grayling (Anthony), Ed.	Philosophy 2 - Further Through the Subject	Book - By Subtopic (via Paper By Subtopic)	Grayling (Anthony), Ed. - Philosophy 2 - Further Through the Subject	1%
Guyer (Paul)	The Cambridge Companion to Kant	Book - Cited	Guyer (Paul) - The Cambridge Companion to Kant	0%
Guyer (Paul)	The Starry Heavens and the Moral Law	Paper - By Subtopic	Guyer (Paul) - The Cambridge Companion to Kant, Introduction	7%
Heythrop Student	Seminar Paper: Philosophy of Religion - Kant and Radical Evil - An Introduction	Paper - By Subtopic	Seminar Hand-out, 2010	33%
Heythrop Student	Seminar Paper: Philosophy of Religion - Kant and the Placement Problem: Are all divine predicates absorbed by human autonomy	Paper - By Subtopic	Seminar Hand-out, 2010	No
Kant (Immanuel)	Kant: Works	Book - By Subtopic	Kant (Immanuel) - Kant: Works	No
Kant (Immanuel)	Of the Impossibility of an Ontological Proof	Paper - By Subtopic	Critique of Pure Reason; Rowe & Wainwright - Philosophy of Religion	No
Kant (Immanuel)	Refutation of Mendelssohn's Proof of the Permanence of the Soul	Paper - By Subtopic	Edwards - Immortality, pp, 155-6	No
Kant (Immanuel)	Section II: Transition From Popular Morality To Metaphysics of Morals	Paper - By Subtopic	Kant, Gregor, Korsgaard - Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals	Yes
Kant (Immanuel)	The Impossibility of an Ontological Proof of the Existence of God	Paper - By Subtopic	Kant, Kemp Smith - Immanuel Kant's Critique of Pure Reason; I, Second Part, First Division, Chapter 3, Section 4; A592/B620 - A602/B630; pp. 500-507	Yes
Kant (Immanuel)	The Moral Argument	Paper - By Subtopic	Critique of Practical Reason; Rowe & Wainwright - Philosophy of Religion	No
Kant (Immanuel), Gregor (Mary), Korsgaard (Christine)	Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals	Book - By Subtopic	Kant (Immanuel), Gregor (Mary), Korsgaard (Christine) - Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals	59%
Kant (Immanuel), Kemp Smith (Norman)	Immanuel Kant's Critique of Pure Reason	Book - By Subtopic	Kant (Immanuel), Kemp Smith (Norman) - Immanuel Kant's Critique of Pure Reason	2%
Kant (Immanuel), Paton (H.J.)	The Moral Law - or Kant's Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals	Book - By Subtopic	Kant (Immanuel), Paton (H.J.) - The Moral Law - or Kant's Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals	No
Korner (Stephan)	Kant	Book - By Subtopic	Korner (Stephan) - Kant	0%
Korner (Stephan)	Kant	Paper - By Subtopic	Korner - Kant	1%
Korsgaard (Christine)	Creating the Kingdom of Ends	Book - By Subtopic (via Paper By Subtopic)	Korsgaard (Christine) - Creating the Kingdom of Ends	No
Korsgaard (Christine)	Fellow Creatures: Our Obligations to the Other Animals	Book - Referenced	Korsgaard (Christine) - Fellow Creatures: Our Obligations to the Other Animals	4%
Korsgaard (Christine)	Kant's Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals: Introduction	Paper - By Subtopic	Kant, Gregor, Korsgaard - Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals	No
Korsgaard (Christine)	Personal Identity and the Unity of Agency: A Kantian Response to Parfit	Paper - By Subtopic	Korsgaard - Creating the Kingdom of Ends, Chapter 13	No
Korsgaard (Christine)	Personal Identity and the Unity of Agency: A Kantian Response to Parfit	Paper - By Subtopic	Philosophy & Public Affairs, Vol. 18, No. 2 (Spring, 1989), pp. 101-132	33%
Korsgaard (Christine)	Self-Constitution: Agency, Identity, and Integrity	Book - By Subtopic	Korsgaard (Christine) - Self-Constitution: Agency, Identity, and Integrity	5%
Lakoff (George) & Johnson (Mark)	Philosophy in the Flesh: The Embodied Mind and Its Challenge to Western Thought	Book - By Subtopic (via Paper By Subtopic)	Lakoff (George) & Johnson (Mark) - Philosophy in the Flesh: The Embodied Mind and Its Challenge to Western Thought	No
Lakoff (George) & Johnson (Mark)	The Cognitive Science of Philosophy: Kantian Morality	Paper - By Subtopic	Lakoff & Johnson - Philosophy in the Flesh: The Embodied Mind and Its Challenge to Western Thought, 1999	No
Longuenesse (Beatrice)	Kant on the identity of persons	Paper - By Subtopic	Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, 22 January 2007, draft	Yes
MacIntosh (J.J.)	The Impossibility of Kantian Immortality	Paper - By Subtopic	Dialogue 19 - Issue 2 - June 1980, pp. 219-234	7%
Mackie (J.L.)	Kant on the Moral Argument	Paper - By Subtopic	The Miracle of Theism; Rowe & Wainwright - Philosophy of Religion	No
Mahon (James Edwin)	Kant and Maria von Herbert: Reticence vs. Deception	Paper - By Subtopic	Philosophy - 81, Jul2006, Issue 317	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
O'Hear (Anthony), Ed.	Philosophy - 80/314 (October 2005)	Book - By Subtopic (via Paper By Subtopic)	O'Hear (Anthony), Ed. - Philosophy - 80/314 (October 2005)	No
O'Hear (Anthony), Ed.	Philosophy - 81/317 (July 2006)	Book - By Subtopic (via Paper By Subtopic)	O'Hear (Anthony), Ed. - Philosophy - 81/317 (July 2006)	2%
Popper (Karl)	Conjectures & Refutations	Book - By Subtopic (via Paper By Subtopic)	Popper (Karl) - Conjectures & Refutations	13%
Popper (Karl)	Kant's Critique and Cosmology	Paper - By Subtopic	Popper - Conjectures & Refutations, 1989	No
Rowe (William L.) & Wainwright (William), Eds.	Philosophy of Religion	Book - By Subtopic (via Paper By Subtopic)	Rowe (William L.) & Wainwright (William), Eds. - Philosophy of Religion	8%
Savile (Anthony)	What drove Kant over the edge	Paper - By Subtopic	Birkbeck Philosophy Society, 3rd December 2002	No
Scruton (Roger)	Modern Philosophy I: The Rationalists and Kant	Paper - By Subtopic	Grayling - Philosophy 1 - A Guide Through the Subject, 1998, Chapter 8	No
Shapiro (Stewart)	Near Opposites: Kant and Mill	Paper - By Subtopic	Shapiro - Thinking about Mathematics - The Philosophy of Mathematics, 2000, Chapter 4	No
Shapiro (Stewart)	Thinking about Mathematics - The Philosophy of Mathematics	Book - By Subtopic (via Paper By Subtopic)	Shapiro (Stewart) - Thinking about Mathematics - The Philosophy of Mathematics	12%
Strathern (Paul)	Kant in 90 Minutes	Book - Cited	Strathern (Paul) - Kant in 90 Minutes	Yes
Strathern (Paul)	Kant in 90 Minutes	Paper - By Subtopic	Strathern - Kant in 90 Minutes	Yes
Strawson (Peter)	The Bounds of Sense - An Essay on Kant's Critique of Pure Reason	Book - By Subtopic	Strawson (Peter) - The Bounds of Sense - An Essay on Kant's Critique of Pure Reason	1%
Stroud (Barry)	Transcendental Arguments	Paper - By Subtopic	The Journal of Philosophy, LXV(9), 1968: pp. 241-256	7%
Taylor (Charles)	The Validity of Transcendental Arguments	Paper - By Subtopic	Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society 1978-1979	7%
Timmermann (Jens)	Kantian Duties to the Self, Explained and Defended	Paper - By Subtopic	Philosophy - 81, Jul2006, Issue 317	No
Todman (Theo)	Birkbeck Philosophy Society - 2002/2003 Programme	Book - By Subtopic (via Paper By Subtopic)	Todman (Theo) - Birkbeck Philosophy Society - 2002/2003 Programme	2%
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Kant	Paper - By Subtopic		Yes
Trigg (Roger)	Ideas of Human Nature: An Historical Introduction	Book - By Subtopic (via Paper By Subtopic)	Trigg (Roger) - Ideas of Human Nature: An Historical Introduction	4%
Trigg (Roger)	Ideas of Human Nature: Kant	Paper - By Subtopic	Trigg - Ideas of Human Nature, 1999 (2nd Edition), Chapter 7	No
Varden (Helga)	Kant and Lying to the Murderer at the Door - One More Time: Kant’s Legal Philosophy and Lies to Murderers and Nazis	Paper - By Subtopic	Journal of Social Philosophy, Vol. 41 No. 4, Winter 2010, 403–421	No
Vardy (Peter)	Heythrop MA Philosophy of Religion Lectures	Book - By Subtopic (via Paper By Subtopic)	Vardy (Peter) - Heythrop MA Philosophy of Religion Lectures	93%
Weinert (Friedel)	Einstein and Kant	Paper - By Subtopic	Philosophy - 80, Oct2005, Issue 314, p585-593, 9p	No
White (Ian)	Kant on Forms of Intuition	Paper - By Subtopic	Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society 1978-1979	8%

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

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