Theo Todman's Web Page - Notes Pages
Status Reports
Status: Personal Identity (2014 - September)
(Text as at 07/10/2014 17:39:50)
*** 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)
Rationale for this Project
- I am researching the subject of Personal Identity primarily because of its intrinsic interest and importance. It is really a sub-topic in my Philosophy of Religion1 project, with its penultimate chapter considering the metaphysical possibility of resurrection.
- While I’m interested in the topic of my research in its own right, I think when I’ve sorted it out a bit, and have something to say, I’ll want to engage with other philosophers active in this field – and re-starting a PhD at Birkbeck or elsewhere might be the only effective way to do this.
- While a PhD is not an end in itself, and certainly not the ultimate aim of my doing philosophy, it’s still true that a PhD would teach me research techniques, provide focus and direction, and furnish a professional qualification should I want to publish any results in this or any other area of philosophy.
Summary of Progress during July – September 2014
- I maintained the focus on this project during this quarter, even more so than during the last. As such, I actually spent more time than planned, maybe for the first time ever, despite more time than usual being planned. Things are looking up!
- Anyway, I spent 300 hours in 3Q14 (735 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 104% of the planned effort (74% YTD). Overall, 43% of my Project effort in the Quarter was directed towards this project (making 29% YTD) – as against 41% planned (35% YTD).
- Progress between reports can be obtained from the relevant section of my Summary Task List (Click_Here2).
- This quarter, effort was expended on a vast number of tasks, as listed below, but key items included the following:-
- More detail follows:-
Thesis (Total Hours = 264.25)
- Thesis - Reading / Writing (Total Hours = 259)
- "Alexander (Ronald) - The Self, Supervenience and Personal Identity: Introduction" (Read / Write, 2.5 hours)
- "Anscombe (G.E.M.) - Objects and Identity: Foreward" (Read / Write, 1.25 hours)
- "Ayer (A.J.) - The Concept of a Person" (Read, 0.25 hours)
- "Ayers (Michael R.) - Individuals Without Sortals" (Read, 0.5 hours)
- "Ayers (Michael R.) - Neo-Lockean and Anti-Lockean Theories of Personal Identity in Analytic Philosophy" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Baber (Harriet E.) - Ex Ante Desire and Post Hoc Satisfaction" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - Temporal Reality" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Bradley (Ben) - Eternalism and Death's Badness" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Braude (Stephen) - First Person Plural: Introduction" (Write, 1 hour)
- "Brody (Baruch) - Abortion and the Sanctity of Human Life: Epilogue" (Read, 0.5 hours)
- "Brody (Baruch) - Abortion and the Sanctity of Human Life: Introduction" (Read / Write, 1.25 hours)
- "Carroll (John W.) - Context, Conditionals, Fatalism, Time Travel, and Freedom" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Carter (William) - Once and Future Persons" (Write, 0.75 hours)
- "Chitty (Andrew) - First Person Plural Ontology and Praxis" (Read / Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Corcoran (Kevin) - Soul, Body and Survival: Introduction - Soul or Body?" (Read / Write, 8.25 hours)
- "Dancy (Jonathan) - Reading Parfit: Preface" (Write, 1.75 hours)
- "Doepke (Frederick) - The Kinds of Things: A Theory of Personal Identity Based on Transcendental Argument: Preface" (Read / Write, 1.5 hours)
- "Dorr (Cian) - Merricks on the Existence of Human Organisms" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Elder (Crawford) - Real Natures and Familiar Objects: Synopsis" (Read, 0.5 hours)
- "Elugardo (Reinaldo) & Stainton (Robert J.) - Identity Through Change and Substitutivity Salva Veritate" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Feldman (Fred) - Sortal Predicates" (Read, 0.75 hours)
- "Flew (Antony) - Merely Mortal? Preface & Introduction" (Write, 1.25 hours)
- "Flitch (Crawford J. E.) - The Tragic Sense of Life: Introductory Essay" (Read, 0.5 hours)
- "Ford (Norman), Warnock (Mary) - When Did I Begin: Foreward & Preface" (Read / Write, 2 hours)
- "Garrett (Brian) - The Story of I: Some Comments on L.R.Baker 'Persons & Bodies'" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Ghiselin (Michael) - Metaphysics and the Origin of Species: Preface & Introduction" (Write, 1.25 hours)
- "Gorham (Geoffrey) - Descartes on Persistence and Temporal Parts" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Harre (Rom) - Persons and Selves" (Write, 1 hour)
- "Hawthorne (John) - Identity" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Heller (Mark) - Preface: The Ontology of Physical Objects - Four-Dimensional Hunks of Matter" (Read, 1.75 hours)
- "Hinchliff (Mark) - The Identity of the Past" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Ishiguro (Hide) - The Primitiveness of the Concept of a Person" (Read, 0.5 hours)
- "Ismael (Jenann) - Me, Again" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Jaynes (Julian) - Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Larkin (William S.) - Persons, Animals, and Bodies" (Write, 0.75 hours)
- "Levenbook (Barbara Baum) - The Retroactivity Problem" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Lizza (John) - Persons, Humanity, & the Definition of Death: Preface" (Write, 1.5 hours)
- "Lombard (Lawrence B.) - Time for a Change: A Polemic Against the Presentism-Eternalism Debate" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Lowe (E.J.) - Objects and Criteria of Identity" (Read / Write, 2.75 hours)
- "Lowe (E.J.) - Subjects of Experience: Introduction" (Write, 1.5 hours)
- "Lowe (E.J.) - Substance and Selfhood" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Lowe (E.J.) - What Is a Criterion Of Identity?" (Read, 0.5 hours)
- "MacBride (Fraser) - Identity and Modality: Introduction" (Read / Write, 2.75 hours)
- "Mackie (David) - Animalism Versus Lockeanism: No Contest" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Mackie (David) - Personal Identity and Dead People" (Write, 1.25 hours)
- "Mackie (Penelope) - Sortal Concepts and Essential Properties" (Read, 0.25 hours)
- "Markosian (Ned) - Identifying the Problem of Personal Identity" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Marshall (Richard) & Olson (Eric) - Eric T. Olson: The Philosopher with No Hands" (Read / Write, 2.5 hours)
- "Martin (Raymond) - Anticipation" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Martin (Raymond) - Identification" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Martin (Raymond) - Questions" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Martin (Raymond) - Self Concern: Preface" (Read / Write, 1.25 hours)
- "McGinn (Colin) - The Self" (Read, 0.75 hours)
- "Merricks (Trenton) - The Resurrection of the Body" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Murphy (Nancey) - Did my neurons make me do it? Reductionism, morality and the problem of free will" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Murphy (Nancey) - Do Christians need souls? Theological and Biblical perspectives on human nature" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Murphy (Nancey) - What are the philosophical challenges to physicalism? Human distinctiveness, divine action, and personal identity" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Murphy (Nancey) - What does science say about human nature? Physics, evolutionary biology, and neuroscience" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Noonan (Harold) - Identity: Introduction" (Read / Write, 2 hours)
- "Noonan (Harold) - Objects and Identity: Introduction" (Write, 1.75 hours)
- "Noonan (Harold) - Persons, Animals and Human Beings (2010)" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Noonan (Harold) - Relative Identity" (Read / Write, 2.25 hours)
- "Olson (Eric) - Human People Or Human Animals" (Write, 1.5 hours)
- "Olson (Eric) - Is Psychology Relevant To Personal Identity?" (Write, 1.5 hours)
- "Olson (Eric) - Relativism and Persistence" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Olson (Eric) - Review of Jack Wilson's 'Biological Individuality: The Identity and Persistence of Living Entities'" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Olson (Eric) - Review of Lowe's 'The Possibility of Metaphysics'" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Olson (Eric) - Review of Lynne Baker's 'Persons And Bodies'" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Olson (Eric) - Review of Perry's 'Identity, Personal Identity, and the Self'" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Olson (Eric) - Review of Tye's 'Consciousness and Persons - Unity and Identity'" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Olson (Eric) - Was I Ever a Fetus?" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Olson (Eric) - Was I Ever a Fetus? ('New Version')" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Parsons (Terence) - Indeterminate Identity: Analytical Table of Contents" (Read / Write, 3.75 hours)
- "Penelhum (Terence) - Immortality: Introduction" (Read / Write, 2.5 hours)
- "Perrett (Roy W.) - Death and Immortality: Introduction" (Read / Write, 0.75 hours)
- "Perry (John) - Selves and Self-Concepts" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Persson (Ingmar) - Our Identity and the Separability of Person and Organism" (Write, 0.75 hours)
- "Pollock (John L.) - How to Build a Person: Preface" (Write, 2.25 hours)
- "Puhl (Klaus) - Review of Klaus Petrus's 'On Human Persons'" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Radden (Jennifer) - Divided Minds and Successive Selves: Introduction" (Write, 1.5 hours)
- "Regan (Tom) - Matters of Life and Death: Introduction" (Write, 2.25 hours)
- "Reuscher (John) - Essays on the Metaphysical Foundations of Personal Identity: Preface/Introduction" (Read / Write, 2 hours)
- "Richards (Janet Radcliffe) - Biology as Destiny" (Read, 0.25 hours)
- "Richards (Janet Radcliffe) - Blameless Puppets" (Read, 0.25 hours)
- "Richards (Janet Radcliffe) - Human Nature After Darwin: Introduction" (Read / Write, 0.75 hours)
- "Richards (Janet Radcliffe) - Implications and Conditionals" (Read, 0.25 hours)
- "Richards (Janet Radcliffe) - Internicene Strife" (Read, 0.25 hours)
- "Richards (Janet Radcliffe) - Onwards and Upwards" (Read, 0.25 hours)
- "Richards (Janet Radcliffe) - Selfish Genes and Moral Animals" (Read, 0.25 hours)
- "Richards (Janet Radcliffe) - The End of Ethics" (Read, 0.25 hours)
- "Richards (Janet Radcliffe) - The Real Differences" (Read, 0.25 hours)
- "Richards (Janet Radcliffe) - The Sceptics" (Read, 0.25 hours)
- "Richards (Janet Radcliffe) - The Theory" (Read, 0.25 hours)
- "Shoemaker (Sydney) - Personal Identity: a Materialist Account" (Write, 1.25 hours)
- "Shoemaker (Sydney) - Persons and Personal Identity" (Read / Write, 1.25 hours)
- "Shoemaker (Sydney) - Self-Knowledge and Self-Identity: Preface" (Write, 1.5 hours)
- "Silverstein (Harry) - The Time of the Evil of Death" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Slater (Matthew H.) - Framing the Problems of Time and Identity" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Slors (Marc) - Personal Identity and the Metaphysics of Mind: Preface" (Read / Write, 2.75 hours)
- "Slors (Marc) - The Diachronic Mind: Introduction and Overview" (Read / Write, 1.5 hours)
- "Sorensen (Roy) - Thought Experiments: Introduction" (Write, 2.5 hours)
- "Thomson (Judith Jarvis) - People and Their Bodies" (Write, 0.75 hours)
- "Tipler (Frank) - The Physics of Immortality: Preface" (Read / Write, 3.75 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Chapter 01 (Introduction)" (Write, 32.75 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Chapter 02 (What Are We?)" (Write, 22.75 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Chapter 03 (What is a Person?)" (Write, 17.5 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Chapter 04 (Basic Metaphysical Issues)" (Write, 19.25 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Chapter 05 (Persistence and Time)" (Write, 13 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Chapter 06 (Animalism and Arguments for It)" (Write, 6.5 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Chapter 07 (The Constitution View and Arguments for It)" (Write, 4.5 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Chapter 08 (Arguments against Animalism)" (Write, 2.5 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Chapter 09 (Arguments against the Constitution View)" (Write, 0.75 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Chapter 10 (Thought Experiments)" (Write, 7 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Chapter 11 (Resurrection)" (Write, 9 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Later Reading" (Write, 3.25 hours)
- "Tognazzini (Neal A.) - Persistence and Responsibility" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Trupp (Andreas) - Personal Identity" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Trupp (Andreas) - Time" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Trupp (Andreas) - Why We Are Not What We Think We Are: Preface" (Read / Write, 0.75 hours)
- "Valberg (J.J.) - Philosophical Discovery and Philosophical Puzzles" (Write, 1.25 hours)
- "Wilkes (Kathleen) - Multiple Personality and Personal Identity" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Williams (Christopher) - Being, Identity and Truth: Analytical Table of Contents" (Read / Write, 2 hours)
- "Williams (Christopher) - Being, Identity and Truth: Preface" (Read / Write, 2.25 hours)
- "Williams (Christopher) - What is Existence? Preface" (Read / Write, 2 hours)
- "Williams (Christopher) - What Is Identity?: Introduction and Analytical Table of Contents" (Read / Write, 4 hours)
- "Williamson (Timothy) - Identity and Discrimination" (Read / Write, 1 hour)
- "Williamson (Timothy) - Vagueness, Identity and Leibniz's Law" (Read / Write, 1 hour)
- Thesis - Research Repositioning
Thesis Background (Total Hours = 36)
- Thesis Background - Reading / Writing (Total Hours = 21.25)
- Thesis Background - Admin (Total Hours = 4.25)
- Thesis Background - Books Admin
- Thesis Background - Status
Plans for the Near Future – Top Priority Tasks
- I now have a clearer idea of what I want to do over the next 4 years4, which is to complete a thesis to my own satisfaction. As such I require rigorous focus on the priority tasks, books and papers. Lower-priority reading is not likely to get a look in, so will be cut.
- My next step is to ensure that everything that is relevant that I have actually read is written up and incorporated in my Notes database and only later – and secondly – considering anything that I have not yet read. This will require discipline, and I will make a final decision on this in the coming quarter after I have been through my “Identity Papers Read” list.
- So, the tasks for the next quarter are:-
- Review my Identity Papers Read list. Add anything of importance to the Thesis Chapter reading lists (ensuring they have some write-up text).
- Start serious work on Chapter_65 of my Thesis6. In this regard:-
… Incorporate electronic write-up text into the Chapter and associated Notes.
… Do the same for marginal annotations, converting them to write-ups first (if appropriate).
… Leave un-annotated papers alone for now, …
… The exception being "Olson (Eric) - The Human Animal - Personal Identity Without Psychology", my core text.
- 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.
- As background tasks:-
… Convert old PDF-précis, Etc. to Notes,
… Continue with "Marshall (Richard) - Philosophy at 3:AM: Questions and Answers with 25 Top Philosophers",
… Keep up with the Journals via JSTOR7 ("Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Later Reading").
- Update my “Progress to Date” Note8.
Summary of Progress to Date
This was hived off to a separate Note9 back in 2010, and hasn’t changed much since. I intend to update it in the coming quarter.
In-Page Footnotes
Footnote 4:
- Hopefully, I may complete, or get stuck, earlier.
- On the plus side, I’m much further advanced than would be expected of someone commencing a PhD.
- On the minus side, I want to go into greater depth, and have other projects on the go – most notably my Web-tools project.
Live Version of this Archived Note
Table of 12 Earlier Versions of this Note (of 54)
Table of 12 Later Versions of this Note (of 45)
| This version updated |
Reference for this Topic |
Parent Topic |
| 07/10/2014 17:39:50 |
518 (Status: Personal Identity (2014 - September)) |
Status: Summary (2026 - March) |
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