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Personal Identity

Thesis - Chapter 03 (What is a Person?)

(Text as at 02/10/2014 17:12:29)

*** 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)

Abstract

    This chapter will canvass the various views of what Persons are and consider how important issues in this area are to my main concern of our identity.


Research Methodology

Chapter Introduction
  1. The main philosophical argument about Persons is whether PERSON is a substance-concept in its own right, or whether it is parasitic on other substance-concept(s).
  2. My own view is that Human Persons are phase_sortals3 of human animals, but other philosophers have more robust views of persons and think of them as substances in their own right.
  3. Famously, Locke4 held this view, and Lynne Rudder Baker5 is a contemporary exponent – her view being that human persons are constituted6 by, but not identical to, human animals.
  4. In this thesis, I’m only concerned with human persons, and – like most philosophers – allow that there can be non-human persons (God, gods, angels, aliens, robots, etc.)
  5. All this is predicated on deciding just what PERSONS are, which in turn depends somewhat on whether we take PERSON to be a natural kind concept, or something that is socially constructed and so not something the correct definition of we can discover.
  6. Further text to be supplied.


Main Text
  1. To be supplied.


Links to Books / Papers to be Addressed7
  1. In this Chapter I will consider the following papers or book chapters (together with some others referenced by these). There are doubtless many more that are relevant and which will be addressed in the course of the thesis, but these are probably sufficient to get us going.
  2. Many aspects of these papers will need to be either ignored or reserved for other chapters.
  3. The motivation for these works is as follows:-
    • To be supplied.


The Cut
  1. There had already been a lot of cutting in the various selections of the original reading list – the reading lists attached to the Notes run on and on – and these items just represent the works in my possession (though I have sought out all that I’ve heard of that look relevant).
  2. However, the items in the lists following were given some attention, and have been culled – at least temporarily – from the lists above, where they originally appeared. I’ve not always given a reason as I’ve not studied them sufficiently closely. But, you have to draw a line somewhere.
  3. I’m well aware that the cut has not been sufficiently rigorous. Further items beyond the items below are likely to be culled when I come to process them.


Links to Notes
  1. The primary Notes are:-
  2. No doubt there are others:-
    • To be supplied.


Final Remarks
  1. This is work-in-progress22.


In-Page Footnotes

Footnote 7: Footnote 8: This is very elementary, but short and maybe entertaining.

Footnote 9: Read this as an example from the Animal Liberation movement.

Footnote 10: This is rather introductory to Parfit’s ideas, so read it quickly for that purpose.

Footnote 11: Restrict a close reading to Part 3 (Personal Identity).

Footnote 12: May be useful both as a take on Strawson, and for Plantinga’s own views.

Footnote 13: Stanley got into a debate with Jen Hornsby, though not on this topic, so it’ll be interesting to see how he argues.

Footnote 14: This is a difficult book with which I expect to have little sympathy, but one that has to be read.

Footnote 15: This is rather elementary, and ought to have been reviewed in Chapter 1 (Click here for Note).

Footnote 16: This paper may be important, but is too long (and difficult) for a first pass through the literature

Footnote 17: Too similar to "Lowe (E.J.) - Substance and Selfhood", which was read for Chapter 2 (Click here for Note).

Live Version of this Archived Note

Date Length Title
14/04/2026 04:37:55 77001 Thesis - Chapter 03 (What is a Person?)

Table of the 2 Earlier Versions of this Note

Date Length Title
22/07/2014 22:23:31 4088 Thesis - Chapter 03 (What is a Person?)
10/07/2014 17:06:43 6437 Thesis - Chapter 03 (What is a Person?)

Table of 12 Later Versions of this Note (of 14)

Date Length Title
28/09/2022 10:24:58 73656 Thesis - Chapter 03 (What is a Person?)
11/05/2022 18:59:02 73634 Thesis - Chapter 03 (What is a Person?)
01/05/2022 18:20:10 65670 Thesis - Chapter 03 (What is a Person?)
11/04/2022 00:01:26 39524 Thesis - Chapter 03 (What is a Person?)
01/10/2021 13:17:46 37181 Thesis - Chapter 03 (What is a Person?)
29/03/2021 19:23:31 20603 Thesis - Chapter 03 (What is a Person?)
22/03/2021 00:28:48 13772 Thesis - Chapter 03 (What is a Person?)
07/02/2021 22:00:29 6656 Thesis - Chapter 03 (What is a Person?)
14/07/2019 18:05:46 6624 Thesis - Chapter 03 (What is a Person?)
18/04/2019 18:18:43 6570 Thesis - Chapter 03 (What is a Person?)
05/04/2016 23:19:41 6315 Thesis - Chapter 03 (What is a Person?)
06/11/2014 10:13:26 6210 Thesis - Chapter 03 (What is a Person?)


This version updated Reading List for this Topic Parent Topic
02/10/2014 17:12:29 None available Thesis - Chapter 00 (Preface)


Summary of Notes Links from this Page

Awaiting Attention (Personal Identity) Baker Constitution View First-Person Perspective Human Persons
Locke Person Phase Sortals Status: Thesis Dashboard (2014: July) Taking Persons Seriously
Thesis - Method & Form        

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Summary of Note Links to this Page

Status: Thesis Dashboard (2014: September) Thesis - Chapter 01 (Introduction), 2 Thesis - Chapter 02 (What are We?) Thesis - Outline  

To access information, click on one of the links in the table above (if any).



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



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