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Personal Identity
Thesis - Chapter 06 (Animalism and Arguments for It)
(Text as at 02/10/2014 17:12:29)
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AbstractThis Chapter describes what Animalism is, with an excursus on animals and organisms and their persistence. It puts forward the arguments in favour of animalism, those against being reserved for a later Chapter. It focuses on the account of Eric Olson, the primary contemporary exponent of Animalism.
Research Methodology
- Follow this Link1 for a generic statement of how I intend to pursue each Chapter.
- The method is broken down into 12, possibly iterative, stages.
- Follow this Link2 for my progress dashboard on these tasks.
Chapter Introduction
- As we saw in Chapter_023, nothing is more obvious than that we are human animals.
- The disadvantages of whole-hearted acceptance of this seemingly obvious fact are firstly that it seems to demote human beings from their status of being made in the image of the God most people no longer believe in. There are two responses to this; either to deny that it does, or to accept that the differences between human beings and other animals are those of degree rather than kind.
- A second disadvantage is that accepting that we are human animals makes the prospects for post-mortem survival look bleak. This is addressed in Chapter_114.
- So, while saying that we are human animals might seem to be the default position – and so the burden is on others to demonstrate that we are not – the historical situation places a burden on the animalist to present the case for animalism with as much rigour as possible.
- Further text to be supplied.
Main Text
- To be supplied.
Links to Books / Papers to be Addressed5
- 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.
- As this is a “core” chapter, the coverage of the literature will be very complete, if not exhaustive, when it comes to Animalism itself.
- For background topics, it will be more selective6. Hence, I have divided the reading list into two.
- I’ve not been overly careful to segregate the reading-list of this Chapter from that of Chapter_087. I will address the segregation in due course. There will, in any case, be some overlap.
- Core Topics
- "Ayers (Michael R.) - Neo-Lockean and Anti-Lockean Theories of Personal Identity in Analytic Philosophy", Ayers
- "Berglund (Stefan) - Animalism", Berglund
- "Blatti (Stephan) - A New Argument for Animalism", Blatti
- "Blatti (Stephan) - Animalism (Continuum)", Blatti
- "Blatti (Stephan) - Animalism and its Implications", Blatti
- "Blatti (Stephan) - Animalism and Personal Identity", Blatti
- "Blatti (Stephan) - Animalism Unburdened", Blatti
- "Campbell (Scott) - Animals, Babies, and Subjects", Campbell
- "Carter (William) - Death and Bodily Transfiguration", Carter
- "Carter (William) - Do Zygotes Become People?", Carter
- "Carter (William) - How to Change Your Mind", Carter
- "Carter (William) - Once and Future Persons", Carter
- "Carter (William) - Our Bodies, Our Selves", Carter
- "Carter (William) - Personal Identity", Carter
- "Carter (William) - Will I Be a Dead Person?", Carter
- "Garrett (Brian) - Animalism and Reductionism", Garrett
- "Garrett (Brian) - Some Thoughts on Animalism", Garrett
- "Hershenov (David) - Countering the Appeal of the Psychological Approach to Personal Identity", Hershenov
- "Johansson (Jens) - What is Animalism?", Johansson
- "Liao (S. Matthew) - The Organism View Defended", Liao
- "Mackie (David) - Animalism Versus Lockeanism: No Contest", Mackie
- "Mackie (David) - Going Topless", Mackie
- "Olson (Eric) - An Argument for Animalism", Olson
- "Olson (Eric) - Human Atoms", Olson
- "Olson (Eric) - Human People Or Human Animals", Olson
- "Olson (Eric) - Is Psychology Relevant To Personal Identity?", Olson
- "Olson (Eric) - Personal Identity", Olson
- "Olson (Eric) - Personal Identity (Stanford, 2010)", Olson
- "Olson (Eric) - Personal Identity and the Radiation Argument", Olson
- "Olson (Eric) - Precis of 'The Human Animal'", Olson
- "Olson (Eric) - Relativism and Persistence", Olson
- "Olson (Eric) - Review of Hud Hudson's 'A Materialist Metaphysics of the Human Person'", Olson
- "Olson (Eric) - Review of Jack Wilson's 'Biological Individuality: The Identity and Persistence of Living Entities'", Olson
- "Olson (Eric) - Review of Lowe's 'The Possibility of Metaphysics'", Olson
- "Olson (Eric) - Review of Perry's 'Identity, Personal Identity, and the Self'", Olson
- "Olson (Eric) - Review of Tye's 'Consciousness and Persons - Unity and Identity'", Olson
- "Olson (Eric) - The Human Animal - Personal Identity Without Psychology", Olson
- "Olson (Eric) - The Paradox of Increase", Olson
- "Marshall (Richard) & Olson (Eric) - Eric T. Olson: The Philosopher with No Hands", Olson
- "Olson (Eric) - There Is No Problem of the Self", Olson
- "Olson (Eric) - Warum wir Tiere sind (Why we are animals)", Olson
- "Olson (Eric) - Was I Ever a Fetus?", Olson
- "Olson (Eric) - Was I Ever a Fetus? ('New Version')", Olson
- "Olson (Eric) - Was Jekyll Hyde?", Olson
- "Olson (Eric) - What are We? A Study of Personal Ontology", Olson
- "Petrus (Klaus), Ed. - On Human Persons", Petrus
- "Puhl (Klaus) - Review of Klaus Petrus's 'On Human Persons'", Puhl
- "Shoemaker (David) - Personal Identity, Rational Anticipation, and Self-Concern", Shoemaker_D
- "Snowdon (Paul) - Personal Identity (Lectures 1 - 4)", Snowdon
- "Snowdon (Paul) - Persons and Personal Identity", Snowdon
- "Snowdon (Paul) - Persons, Animals, and Ourselves", Snowdon
- "Steinhart (Eric) - Persons Versus Brains: Biological Intelligence in Human Organisms", Steinhart
- "Tollefsen (Christopher) - Abortion and the Human Animal", Tollefsen
- "Wiggins (David) - Reply to Snowdon (Persons and Personal Identity)", Wiggins
- Background Material
- "Anstotz (Christoph) - Profoundly Intellectually Disabled Humans and the Great Apes: A Comparison", Anstotz
- "Brody (Baruch) - Abortion and the Sanctity of Human Life : a Philosophical View", Brody
- "DeGrazia (David) - Human Identity and Bioethics", DeGrazia
- "DeGrazia (David) - Taking Animals Seriously: Mental Life and Moral Status", DeGrazia
- "Dorr (Cian) - Merricks on the Existence of Human Organisms", Dorr
- "Fetzer (James) - The Evolution of Intelligence: Are Humans the Only Animals with Minds?", Fetzer
- "Ford (Norman) - When Did I Begin: Conception of the Human Individual in History, Philosophy and Science", Ford
- "Ghiselin (Michael) - Metaphysics and the Origin of Species", Ghiselin
- "Griffin (Donald) - Animal Minds", Griffin
- "Hurley (Susan) & Nudds (Matthew) - Rational Animals?", Hurley&Nudds
- "Hoffman (Joshua) & Rosenkrantz (Gary) - On the Unity of the Parts of Organisms", Hoffman&Rosenkrantz
- "Penn (Derek C.) & Povinelli (Daniel) - On the Lack of Evidence That Non-Human Animals Possess Anything Remotely Resembling a 'Theory of Mind'", Penn&Povinelli
- "Rachels (James) - Created From Animals: The Moral Implications of Darwinism", Rachels
- "Richards (Janet Radcliffe) - Human Nature After Darwin: A Philosophical Introduction", Richards
- "Rowlands (Mark) - The Philosopher and the Wolf", Rowlands
- "Scarlett (Brian) - The Moral Uniqueness of the Human Animal", Scarlett
- "Van Inwagen (Peter) - A Materialist Ontology of the Human Person", Van Inwagen
- "Van Inwagen (Peter) - Material Beings", Van Inwagen
- "Wilson (Jack) - Biological Individuality - The identity and Persistence of Living Entities", Wilson
- "Wollheim (Richard) - Living", Wollheim
- "Yourgrau (Palle) - Can the Dead Really Be Buried?", Yourgrau
- Many aspects of these papers will need to be either ignored or reserved for other chapters.
- The motivation for these works is as follows:-
The Cut
- 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).
- 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.
- 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
- Animalism8,
- Animalists9,
- Bodies10,
- Olson11,
- Animals12,
- Organisms13,
- Life14,
- Thinking_Animal_Argument15,
- Other_Arguments_for_Animalism16,
- Others to be supplied?
Final Remarks
- This is work-in-progress17.
In-Page Footnotes
Footnote 5:
- See the section on Research Methodology for what is to be done with these.
- The author’s surname is repeated in the text to make it easier for me to see what’s going on in the encoded text I work on.
Footnote 6:
- There are a few papers listed on the cognitive capacities of animals.
- I got bored with listing these, so the sample may not be representative.
- These are, in any case, probably more relevant to Chapter 9 (Click here for Note) – as an antidote to Baker’s attempted ontological separation of human persons from human animals – so I will move them there – and expand the list if necessary – in due course.
Footnote 16: This needs a Note!
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