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Personal Identity
Thesis - Chapter 09 (Arguments against the Constitution View)
(Text as at 22/03/2021 00:28:48)
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Abstract
- A discussion of the arguments against the Constitution View, focusing on the principal animalists, with a critique.
- In particular, I intend to critique Olson’s “thinking animal” argument1 against the Constitution View (though I think this argument is unnecessary for Olson to establish the case for Animalism).
Research Methodology
- Follow this Link2 for a generic statement of how I intend to pursue each Chapter.
- The method is broken down into 12, possibly iterative, stages.
- Follow this Link3 for my progress dashboard on these tasks.
Chapter Introduction
- To be supplied4.
Links to Notes
- The Constitution View5. Note6
- Arguments against the Constitution View7
- The Thinking Animal Argument8
Others to be supplied?
Unlike for the previous Chapter9, there is not so much a 1-1-match between this Chapter and a single Note – in this case Constitution View – Objections10. That’s because [Olson’s Master Argument] – which is both an argument for Animalism and an objection to the Constitution View – has its own Note. I imagine that this Chapter will be more focussed and less exploratory than either of these Notes.
Main Text
- To be supplied11.
Concluding Remarks
- Having now discussed the arguments against both Animalism and the Constitution View, we now in our next Chapter12 turn to the question of Thought Experiments in general, and how they bear on this topic in particular.
- This is work in progress13.
Links to Books / Papers to be Addressed14
- This section attempts to derive the readings lists automatically from those of the underlying Notes, but removing duplicated references. The list is divided into:-
- I’ve not been overly careful to segregate the reading-list of this Chapter from that of Chapter 717. I will address the segregation in due course. There will, in any case, be some overlap.
- Many aspects of these papers will need to be either ignored or reserved for other chapters.
Works on this topic that I’ve actually read18, include the following:-
- Arguments against the Constitution View19
- "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - Brief Reply to Rosenkrantz's Comments on my 'The Ontological Status of Persons'", Date: 2002
- "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - Christians Should Reject Mind-Body Dualism", Date: 2004
- "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - Reply to Zimmerman’s 'Christians Should Affirm Mind-Body Dualism'", Date: 2004
- "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - The Coherence Of the Constitution View of Human Persons", Date: 2000
- "Baker (Lynne Rudder), Etc. - E-Symposium on 'Persons & Bodies: A Constitution View'", Date: 2001
- "Garrett (Brian) - The Story of I: Some Comments on L.R.Baker 'Persons & Bodies'", Date: 2001
- "Noonan (Harold) - Arguments Against Animalism: Comments on L.R.Baker 'Persons & Bodies'", Date: 2001
- "Olson (Eric) - Thinking Animals and the Constitution View", Date: 2001
- "Olson (Eric) - Thinking Animals and the Reference of 'I'", Date: 2002
- "Rosenkrantz (Gary) - Reflections on the Ontological Status of Persons", Date: 2002
- "Sider (Ted) - Review of Lynne Rudder Baker, Persons and Bodies", Date: 2002
- "Zimmerman (Dean) - Christians Should Affirm Mind-Body Dualism", Date: 2004
- "Zimmerman (Dean) - Reply to Baker's 'Christians Should Reject Mind-Body Dualism'", Date: 2004
- The Thinking Animal Argument20
- "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - When Do Persons Begin and End?", Date: 2005
- "Blatti (Stephan) - Animalism (SEP)", Date: 2014
- "Blatti (Stephan) - We Are Animals", Date: 2018
- "Coliva (Annalisa) - Review of Gasser & Stefan, Eds. - Personal Identity: Complex or Simple?"
- "Hershenov (David) - Review of Nancey Murphy's 'Bodies and Souls, or Spirited Bodies?'", Date: 2007
- "Marshall (Richard) & Olson (Eric) - Eric T. Olson: The Philosopher with No Hands", Date: 2014
- "Noonan (Harold) - Persons, Animals and Human Beings", Date: 2003
- "Olson (Eric) - An Argument for Animalism", Date: 2003
- "Olson (Eric) - Animalism and the Corpse Problem", Date: 2004
- "Olson (Eric) - Personal Identity", Date: 2003
- "Olson (Eric) - Personal Identity (Stanford, 2002)", Date: 2002
- "Olson (Eric) - Review of P. Snowdon, Persons, Animals, Ourselves", Date: 2015
- "Olson (Eric) - The Human Animal: Introduction", Date: 1999
- "Olson (Eric) - Warum wir Tiere sind (Why we are animals)", Date: 2003
- "Olson (Eric), Etc. - Abstracta Special Issue on 'The Human Animal'", Date: 2008
- "Shoemaker (David) - Personal Identity, Rational Anticipation, and Self-Concern", Date: 2009
- "Snowdon (Paul) - The Self and Personal Identity", Date: 2009
- "Zimmerman (Dean) - Problems for Animalism", Date: 2008, Note21
A further reading list might start with:-
- Arguments against the Constitution View22
- "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - Replies to Zimmerman, Rea & Pereboom", Date: 2002
- "Burke (Michael) - Persons and Bodies: How to Avoid the New Dualism", Date: 1997
- "De Waal (Frans) - The Ape and the Sushi Master: Cultural Reflections of a Primatologist", Date: 2001, Note23
- "Olson (Eric) - Review of Lynne Baker's 'Persons And Bodies'", Date: 2001
- "Olson (Eric) - What Are We? Constitution", Date: 2007
- "Pereboom (Derek) - On Baker's Persons and Bodies", Date: 2002
- "Rea (Michael) - Lynne Baker on Material Constitution", Date: 2002
- "Zimmerman (Dean) - Persons and Bodies: Constitution Without Mereology?", Date: 2002
- The Thinking Animal Argument24
- "Blatti (Stephan) - A New Argument for Animalism", Date: 2012
- "Blatti (Stephan) - Headhunters", Date: 2016
- "Burke (Michael) - Dion, Theon, and the many-thinkers problem", Date: 2004
- "Hershenov (David) - Animals, Persons and Bioethics", Date: 2008
- "Hershenov (David) - Are There Too Many Hylomorphic Individuals Thinking about this Life and the Next?"
- "Hershenov (David) - Death, Persons, and Sparse Ontologies: The Problem of Too Many Dying Thinkers"
- "Hershenov (David) - Persons as Proper Parts of Organisms", Date: 2005
- "Hershenov (David) - Shoemaker's Problem of Too Many Thinkers", Date: 2007
- "Hershenov (David) - Who Doesn't Have a Problem of Too Many Thinkers?", Date: 2013
- "Johansson (Jens) - Animal Ethics", Date: 2016
- "Madden (Rory) - Intention and the Self", Date: 2011
- "Miller (Kristie) - 'Personal identity' minus the persons", Date: 2013
- "Noonan (Harold) - Persons, Animals and Human Beings (2010)", Date: 2002
- "Noonan (Harold) - The Thinking Animal Problem and Personal Pronoun Revisionism", Date: 2010
- "Olson (Eric) - Personal Identity (Stanford, 2015)", Date: 2017
- "Olson (Eric) - Self: Personal Identity"
- "Olson (Eric) - The Nature of People", Date: 2014
- "Olson (Eric) - What are We? A Study of Personal Ontology", Date: 2007
- "Olson (Eric) - What Are We? Animals", Date: 2007
- "Olson (Eric) - What Are We? Brains", Date: 2007
- "Olson (Eric) - What Are We? Bundles", Date: 2007
- "Olson (Eric) - What Are We? Souls", Date: 2007
- "Olson (Eric) - What Are We? What Now?", Date: 2007
- "Parfit (Derek) - We Are Not Human Beings", Date: 2016
- "Ray (Greg) - Williamson's Master Argument on Vagueness", Date: 2004, Note: Is it relevant?
- "Shoemaker (Sydney) - Persons, Animals, and Identity", Date: 2008
- "Shoemaker (Sydney) - Thinking Animals Without Animalism", Date: 2016
- "Steward (Helen) - Free Will", Date: 2009
- "Sutton (Catherine S.) - The Supervenience Solution to the Too-Many-Thinkers Problem", Date: 2014
In-Page Footnotes
Footnote 6:
- This Note will be excluded from the Reading List.
Footnote 14:
- See the section on Research Methodology for what is to be done with these.
Footnote 21: Footnote 23:
- Argues against human uniqueness.
- No doubt there are a number of other books of this ilk.
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