Theo Todman's Web Page - Notes Pages

1. Things suffered a drastic reverse in 1Q14 after some encouraging progress in the previous quarter. Basically, I got stuck on the first paper in the seminar series ("Look (Brandon C.) - The Metaphysics of Material Beings: Constitution, Persistence, and Identity") I was “attending”, and then got distracted onto peripheral issues.
2. Anyway, I spent 100 hours in 1Q14 (270 hours YTD, where for “YTD” – Year to Date – I mean the (academic) year that commenced in October 2013) on my Thesis or Thesis-related work. That’s 46% of the planned effort (56% YTD), and even then not usually on the tasks planned. Overall, 16% of my Project effort in the Quarter was directed towards this project (making 22% YTD) – as against 31% planned (34% YTD).
3. Progress between reports can be obtained from the relevant section of my Summary Task List (Click_Here²).
4. This quarter, key items (though not those planned) were as follows:-
   • Completed "Gruen (Lori) - Ethics and Animals: An Introduction".
   • Updated a few of my “Identity Notes”.
   • Made some further progress with "Cooper (John) - Body, Soul and Life Everlasting: Preface to the Second Printing".
   • Made some progress on "Wiggins (David) - On Being in the Same Place at the Same Time", but then got stuck.
   • Otherwise effort was directed either at some papers supportive of the above, or was related to sorting out the narratives associated with my philosophy books and papers.
   • In particular, I decided to read a whole bunch of reviews by Simon Blackburn.
5. More detail follows:-

• "Bacchiocchi (Samuele) - Immortality or Resurrection? A Biblical Study on Human Nature and Destiny" (Read / Write, 1 hour)
• "Bennett (Karen) - Composition, Colocation, and Metaontology" (Write, 0.5 hours)
• "Bennett (Karen) - Spatio-Temporal Coincidence and the Grounding Problem" (Read, 1 hour)
• "Benson (Ophelia) - This Isn't My Body" (Write, 1.5 hours)
• "Bostrom (Nick) - How Long Before Superintelligence?" (Read, 1.75 hours)
• "Brandon (Ed) - Review of David Lund's 'Persons, Souls and Death'" (Read, 1 hour)
• "Brandon (Ed) - Review of Galen Strawson's 'Consciousness and Its Place in Nature: Does Physicalism Entail Panpsychism?'" (Read, 1 hour)
• "Coleman (Sam) - Being Realistic: Why Physicalism May Entail Panexperientialism" (Read, 0.25 hours)
• "Cooper (John) - Body, Soul and Life Everlasting: Preface to the Second Printing" (Read / Write, 8.25 hours)
• "Goff (Philip) - Experiences Don't Sum" (Read, 0.25 hours)
• "Gruen (Lori) - Ethics and Animals: An Introduction" (Read / Write, 5.25 hours)
• "Jackson (Frank) - Galen Strawson on Panpsychism" (Read, 0.25 hours)
• "Kim (Jaegwon) - Concepts of Supervenience" (Read, 0.75 hours)
• "Lycan (William) - Resisting ?-ism" (Read, 0.25 hours)
• "Macpherson (Fiona) - Property Dualism and the Merits of Solutions to the Mind-Body Problem: A Reply to Strawson" (Read, 0.25 hours)
• "McGinn (Colin) - Hard Questions: Comments on Galen Strawson" (Read, 0.25 hours)
• "Papineau (David) - Comments on Galen Strawson: 'Realistic Monism: Why Physicalism Entails Panpsychism'" (Read, 0.25 hours)
• "Rey (Georges) - Better to Study Human Than World Psychology" (Read, 0.25 hours)
• "Rosenthal (David) - Experience and the Physical" (Read, 0.25 hours)
• "Russell (Bertrand) - The Philosophy of Logical Atomism - Part 1 (with Discussion)" (Read / Write, 3 hours)
• "Russell (Bertrand) - The Philosophy of Logical Atomism - Part 2 (with Discussion)" (Read / Write, 0.5 hours)
• "Russell (Bertrand) - The Philosophy of Logical Atomism - Part 3 (with Discussion)" (Write, 0.25 hours)
• "Russell (Bertrand) - The Philosophy of Logical Atomism - Part 4 (with Discussion)" (Write, 0.25 hours)
• "Seager (William) - The 'Intrinsic Nature' Argument for Panpsychism" (Read, 0.25 hours)
• "Simons (Peter) - The Seeds of Experience" (Read, 0.25 hours)
• "Stapp (Henry P.) - Commentary on Strawson's Target Article" (Read, 0.25 hours)
• "Surovell (Jonathan) - Bennett's 'Composition, Colocation, and Metaontology'" (Read, 0.5 hours)
• "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Dion and Theon" (Write, 0.25 hours)
• "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Hylomorphism" (Write, 0.5 hours)
• "Wiggins (David) - On Being in the Same Place at the Same Time" (Read / Write, 7 hours)
• "Wikipedia - Hylomorphism" (Read, 1 hour)

1. Thesis Background - Reading / Writing (Total Hours = 29.5)
   • "Alston (William) - Sellars and The 'Myth Of The Given'" (Read, 0.5 hours)
   • "Blackburn (Simon) - Review of Ben Rogers's 'A. J. Ayer: A Life'" (Read / Write, 1.5 hours)
   • "Blackburn (Simon) - Review of Bernard Williams, 'Truth and Truthfulness'" (Read / Write, 1.25 hours)
   • "Blackburn (Simon) - Review of Brandom, 'Reading Rorty'" (Read / Write, 1.25 hours)
   • "Blackburn (Simon) - Review of David Wiggins, 'Ethics - Twelve Lectures on the Philosophy of Morality'" (Read / Write, 0.75 hours)
   • "Blackburn (Simon) - Review of Derek Parfit's 'On What Matters'" (Read / Write, 1.25 hours)
   • "Blackburn (Simon) - Review of Donald Davidson, 'Truth and Predication'" (Read / Write, 0.75 hours)
   • "Blackburn (Simon) - Review of G.E.M. Anscombe's 'Human Life, Action and Ethics'" (Read / Write, 0.75 hours)
   • "Blackburn (Simon) - Review of Harry Frankfurt's 'On Truth'" (Read / Write, 1.25 hours)
   • "Blackburn (Simon) - Review of Iris Murdoch's 'Metaphysics as a Guide to Morals'" (Read / Write, 1.25 hours)
   • "Blackburn (Simon) - Review of John Polkinghorne's 'Faith, Science and Understanding' and 'The God of Hope and the End of the World'" (Read / Write, 1 hour)
   • "Blackburn (Simon) - Review of Kuehn on Kant" (Read / Write, 1 hour)
   • "Blackburn (Simon) - Review of Martha Nussbaum, Upheavals of Thought: The Intelligence of Emotions" (Read / Write, 1.5 hours)
   • "Blackburn (Simon) - Review of Richard Dawkins, 'A Devil’s Chaplain: Reflections on Hope, Lies, Science, and Love'" (Read / Write, 1.25 hours)
   • "Blackburn (Simon) - Review of Ronald Dworkin's 'Justice for Hedgehogs'" (Read / Write, 0.5 hours)
   • "Blackburn (Simon) - Review of Stephen Pinker - The Blank Slate ('Meet the Flintstones')" (Read / Write, 1.5 hours)
   • "Blackburn (Simon) - Review of Thomas Nagel, 'Mind and Cosmos'" (Read / Write, 0.75 hours)
   • "Blackburn (Simon) - Review of Thomas Nagel, 'The Last Word'" (Read / Write, 0.5 hours)
   • "Blackburn (Simon) - Review of Tim Scanlon's 'What We Owe Each Other'" (Read / Write, 0.5 hours)
   • "Blackburn (Simon) - Review of Umberto Eco: Kant and the Platypus: Essays on Language and Cognition" (Write, 1.25 hours)
   • "Blackburn (Simon) - Reviews of 'Iris Murdoch, Philosopher' and 'Iris Murdoch, Gender and Philosophy'" (Read / Write, 1 hour)
   • "Bloom (Paul) - Introduction to Psychology" (Read, 2.25 hours)
   • "Brandom (Robert) - Wilfrid Sellars' 'Empiricism and the Philosophy of Mind' - Study Guide" (Read, 0.75 hours)
   • "Caws (Peter) - On Being in the Same Place at the Same Time" (Read / Write, 0.75 hours)
   • "Gray (Peter) - Psychology: Preface" (Read, 3 hours)
   • "McDowell (John) - Avoiding the Myth of the Given" (Read, 0.5 hours)
   • "Sellars (Wilfrid) - Empiricism and the Philosophy of Mind" (Read, 1 hour)
2. Thesis Background - Admin
   • "Admin - Thesis Planning+Admin (Jan - March)" (1 hour)
3. Thesis Background - Books Admin
   • "Admin - Catalogue Papers and Books (including Abstract improvements)" (28.25 hours)
4. Thesis Background - Status
   • 4Q13 Status Reports (3.5 hours)
     ... See "Admin - Thesis Planning+Admin (Jan - March)"

1. Complete reviewing "Wiggins (David) - On Being in the Same Place at the Same Time".
2. Complete reviewing "Cooper (John) - Body, Soul and Life Everlasting: Preface to the Second Printing".
3. Continue reading and reviewing "Gasser (Georg), Ed. - Personal Identity and Resurrection: How Do We Survive Our Death?".
4. Re-read and take notes on "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - Persons and Bodies: A Constitution View".
5. Re-read and take notes on "Olson (Eric) - The Human Animal - Personal Identity Without Psychology".
6. Complete a full review and update of the Notes I’ve created on Personal Identity, focusing on those with little / no content other than a reading list.
7. Progress with the rest of "Wilson (Jack) - Biological Individuality - The identity and Persistence of Living Entities".
8. Read and take notes on "Olson (Eric) - What are We? A Study of Personal Ontology".
9. Review Research Proposal³ to see if this also still makes sense.
10. Review Thesis Outline⁴ to see if it still makes sense. See if I can fill it out a bit with what I’ve already researched – this will provide focus for what I really need to study.
11. As a background task, convert old PDF-précis, Etc. to Notes.
12. Investigate Nick Bostrom’s Website (Nick Bostrom's Home Page).

Live Version of this Archived Note

Table of 12 Earlier Versions of this Note (of 52)

Table of 12 Later Versions of this Note (of 47)

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