Theo Todman's Web Page - Notes Pages
Status Reports
Status: Personal Identity (2015 - December)
(Text as at 07/01/2016 00:59:02)
*** 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.
- The jumping-off point for my thesis is here2, and a progress dashboard is here3.
Summary of Progress during October – December 2015
- I spent 255 hours in 4Q15 on my Thesis or Thesis-related work (255 hours YTD, where for “YTD” – Year to Date – I mean the (academic) year that commenced in October 2015). That’s 108% of the planned effort (108% YTD). Overall, 40% of my Project effort in the Quarter was directed towards this project (making 40% YTD) – as against 35% planned (35% YTD).
- Progress between reports can be obtained from the relevant section of my Summary Task List (Click_Here4).
- This quarter, effort was yet again expended on a vast number of tasks, as listed in the task list below, but key items immediately follow …
- Listened to the remaining podcasts associated with papers in "O'Hear (Anthony), Ed. - Mind, Self and Person".
- Enhanced my Notes on:-
- This led me to review the works in my possession by the following authors:-
- A tip-off from Patheos (Patheos) enabled me to download about 130 full-text philosophy books published by Springer Verlag prior to 2005. I might have got more, but the “promotion” was rescinded before I had the opportunity. Probably just as well, as cataloguing them all will take a while and will be a distraction.
- Acquired, and started reading, the following books:-
- "Almeder (Robert) - Death and Personal Survival: Evidence for Life After Death",
- "Papineau (David) - Philosophical Devices: Proofs, Probabilities, Possibilities, and Sets",
- "Gasser (Georg) & Stefan (Matthias), Eds. - Personal Identity: Complex or Simple?",
- "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - Naturalism and the First-Person Perspective",
- "Francione (Gary) - Animals as Persons: Essays on the Abolition of Animal Exploitation",
- "Francione (Gary) - Introduction to Animal Rights: Your Child or the Dog?",
- "Beilby (James), Ed. - Naturalism Defeated?: Essays on Plantinga's Evolutionary Argument Against Naturalism", and
- "Plantinga (Alvin) - Where the Conflict Really Lies: Science, Religion, and Naturalism".
- Completed reviews of:-
- Completed reading:-
- Spent a day looking at "Harnish (Robert M.) - Basic Topics in the Philosophy of Language" for reasons I can’t remember.
- Looked through "Walsh (Denis), Ed. - Naturalism, Evolution and the Mind".
- Updated my main philosophy web-page8.
- More detail follows:-
Thesis (Total Hours = 209.75)
- Thesis - Reading / Writing (Total Hours = 201)
- "Almeder (Robert) - Death and Personal Survival: Evidence for Life After Death - Preface" (Read / Write, 1.5 hours)
- "Armstrong (David) - In Conclusion (Universals and Scientific Realism Vol. 2: A Theory of Universals)" (Read / Write, 0.75 hours)
- "Armstrong (David) - Introduction to Universals and Scientific Realism Vol. 1 (Nominalism and Realism)" (Read / Write, 2.25 hours)
- "Armstrong (David) - Metaphysics and Supervenience" (Write, 1 hour)
- "Armstrong (David) - The Argument of Universals and Scientific Realism Vol. 1 (Nominalism and Realism)" (Read / Write, 2 hours)
- "Armstrong (David) - The Argument of Universals and Scientific Realism Vol. 2 (A Theory of Universals)" (Read / Write, 1.25 hours)
- "Armstrong (David) - What is a Law of Nature? Conclusions" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Armstrong (David) - What is a Law of Nature? Introductory" (Write, 1.25 hours)
- "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - A Farewell to Functionalism" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - A Metaphysics of Ordinary Things and Why We Need It" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - Are Beliefs Brain States?" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - Embryos and StemCell Research" (Write, 1.5 hours)
- "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - Attitudes As Nonentities" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - Beyond the Cartesian Self" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - Can Subjectivity be Naturalized?" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - Christian Materialism in a Scientific Age" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - Christianity and the Extended-Mind Thesis" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - Collisions in Education: A View from the Trenches" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - Comments on Hubert L. Dreyfus 'Intelligence without representation'" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - Content and Context" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - Content by Courtesy" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - Content Meets Consciousness" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - De Re Belief in Action" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - Does Naturalism Rest on a Mistake?" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - Dretske on the Explanatory Role of Belief" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - Eliminativism and an Argument from Science" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - First-Person Aspects of Agency" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - First-Person Externalism" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - First-Person Knowledge" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - First-Personal Aspects of Agency" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - Folk Psychology" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - From Consciousness to Self-Consciousness" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - Functionalism" (Write, 0.75 hours)
- "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - God and Science in the Public Schools" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - Has Content Been Naturalized?" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - How to Have Self-Directed Attitudes" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - Human Persons as Social Entities" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - Identity Across Time: A Defense of Three-Dimensionalism" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - Instrumental Intentionality" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - Interpretation in Action: A Preliminary Inquiry" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - Just What Do We Have in Mind?" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - Lynne Rudder Baker - Metaphysics: 5 Questions" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - Lynne Rudder Baker - Mind and Consciousness: 5 Questions" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - Metaphysics and Mental Causation" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - Moral Responsibility Without Libertarianism" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - Naturalism and the First-Person Perspective" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - Naturalism and the First-Person Perspective: What Is The Problem?" (Read / Write, 15.5 hours)
- "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - Nonreductive Materialism" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - On Being One’s Own Person" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - On Making and Attributing Demonstrative Reference" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - On Making Things Up: Constitution and Its Critics" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - On the Mind-Dependence of Temporal Becoming" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - On the Twofold Nature of Artefacts: A Response to Wybo Houkes and Anthonie Meijers" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - On the Very Idea of a Form of Life" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - Ontology and Ordinary Objects" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - Personal Identity: A Not-So-Simple Simple View" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - Persons and Other Things" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - Persons and the Extended-Mind Thesis" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - Persons and the Natural Order" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - Persons in Metaphysical Perspective" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - Persons: Natural, Yet Ontologically Unique" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - Practical Realism Defended: Replies to Critics" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - Propositional Attitudes" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - Reason and Religion" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - Recent Work in the Philosophy of Mind" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - Reply to Jackson, II" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - Reply to van Gulick" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - Review of 'A Neurocomputational Perspective: The Nature of Mind and the Structure of Science' by Paul M. Churchland" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - Review of 'Anti-Individualism and Knowledge' by Jessica Brown" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - Review of 'Bodies and Souls, or Spirited Bodies?' by Nancey Murphy" (Read / Write, 2.25 hours)
- "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - Review of 'Consciousness Explained' by Daniel C. Dennett" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - Review of 'Contemporary Dualism: A Defense' by Andrea Lavazza and Howard Robinson, Eds" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - Review of 'Having Thought: Essays in the Metaphysics of Mind' by John Haugeland" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - Review of 'Judgement and Justification' by William G. Lycan" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - Review of 'Saving God: Religion After Idolatry' by Mark Johnston" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - Review of 'The Nature of True Minds' by John Heil" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - Review of 'Thought and Object: Essays on Intentionality' Andrew Woodfield, Ed." (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - Review of 'Understanding Wittgenstein: Studies of Philosophical Investigations' by J.M.F. Hunter" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - Review of 'Unity of Consciousness' by Tim Bayne" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - Review of 'What Are We? A Study in Personal Ontology' by Eric T. Olson" (Read / Write, 0.75 hours)
- "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - Saving Belief: A Critique of Physicalism" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - Science And The Attitudes: A Reply To Sanford" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - Seeming to See Red" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - Social Externalism and First-Person Authority" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - Temporal Becoming: The Argument from Physics" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - Temporal Reality" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - The Irrelevance of the Consequence Argument" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - The Metaphysics of Malfunction" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - The Ontological Significance of Artefacts" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - The Second-Person Account of the Problem of Evil" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - The Shrinking Difference Between Artifacts and Natural Objects" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - Third-Person Understanding" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - Three-Dimensionalism Rescued: A Brief Reply to Michael Della Rocca" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - Underprivileged Access" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - Unity without Identity: A New Look at Material Constitution" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - Was Leibniz Entitled to Possible Worlds?" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - What Beliefs Are Not" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - What Does It Mean to be One of Us? A Response to Bransen" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - What is This Thing Called ‘Commonsense Psychology’?" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - What We Do: A Nonreductive Approach to Human Action" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - When Does a Person Begin?" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - Why Christians Should Not Be Libertarians: An Augustinian Challenge" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - Why Computers Can't Act" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Baker (Lynne Rudder) & Matthews (Gareth B.) - Anselm’s Argument Reconsidered" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Baker (Lynne Rudder) & Matthews (Gareth B.) - The Ontological Argument Simplified" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Baker (Lynne Rudder) & Wald (Jan David) - Indexical Reference and De Re Belief" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Baker (Lynne Rudder) & Woodruff (David M.) - Review of 'Consciousness and the Brain: A Scientific and Philosophical Inquiry'" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Bakhurst (David) - Training, Transformation, and Education" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Bauby (Jean-Dominique) - The Diving-Bell and the Butterfly" (Read / Write, 3.25 hours)
- "Beilby (James) - Naturalism Defeated? Preface" (Write, 2 hours)
- "Beirne (Piers) - Review of 'Rain Without Thunder' by Gary L. Francione" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Canavero (Sergio) - HEAVEN: The head anastomosis venture Project outline for the first human head transplantation with spinal linkage (GEMINI)" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Canavero (Sergio) - The “Gemini” spinal cord fusion protocol: Reloaded" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Cargile (James) - Review of Hintikka - Cogito, Ergo Sum: Inference or Performance?" (Read / Write, 0.75 hours)
- "Carruthers (Peter) - Against the moral standing of animals" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Carruthers (Peter) - Animal mentality: its character, extent, and moral significance" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Carruthers (Peter) - Animal minds are real, (distinctively) human minds are not" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Carruthers (Peter) - Animal Subjectivity" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Carruthers (Peter) - Animals and Rational Agency" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Carruthers (Peter) - Contractualism and Animals" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Carruthers (Peter) - Contractualism and Character" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Carruthers (Peter) - Invertebrate concepts confront the Generality Constraint (and win)" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Carruthers (Peter) - Invertebrate minds: a challenge for ethical theory" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Carruthers (Peter) - Meta-cognition in animals: a skeptical look" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Carruthers (Peter) - Moral Argument and Moral Theory" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Carruthers (Peter) - Natural theories of consciousness" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Carruthers (Peter) - On being simple minded" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Carruthers (Peter) - Replies to Critics: Explaining Subjectivity" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Carruthers (Peter) - Suffering without subjectivity" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Carruthers (Peter) - Sympathy and subjectivity" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Carruthers (Peter) - The Animals Issue: Moral Theory in Practice - Conclusion" (Write, 1.5 hours)
- "Carruthers (Peter) - The Animals Issue: Moral Theory in Practice - Preface" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Carruthers (Peter) - Utilitarianism and Animal Suffering" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Carruthers (Peter) - Utilitarianism and Contractualism" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Carruthers (Peter) - Utilitarianism and the Harm of Killing" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Carruthers (Peter) - Why the question of animal consciousness might not matter very much" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Carruthers (Peter) & Fletcher (Logan) - Behavior-Reading versus Mentalizing in Animals" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Carruthers (Peter) & Ritchie (J. Brendan) - The emergence of metacognition: affect and uncertainty in animals" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Cerullo (Michael A.) - Uploading and Branching Identity" (Read / Write, 1.5 hours)
- "Coliva (Annalisa) - Review of Gasser & Stefan, Eds. - Personal Identity: Complex or Simple?" (Write, 2.75 hours)
- "Crane (Tim) - The Mental States of Persons and their Brains" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Dainton (Barry) - Self: Philosophy In Transit: Prologue" (Write, 3.25 hours)
- "Dainton (Barry) - The Phenomenal Self: Preface" (Write, 1 hour)
- "Della Rocca (Michael) - Primitive Persistence and the Impasse between Three Dimensionalism and Four-Dimensionalism" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Dennett (Daniel) - Content and Consciousness: An Analysis of Mental Phenomena" (Write, 1.5 hours)
- "Dennett (Daniel) - Elbow Room - The Varieties of Free Will Worth Wanting" (Write, 1 hour)
- "Dennett (Daniel) - Kinds of Minds: Preface" (Write, 1 hour)
- "Dennett (Daniel) - Natural Freedom" (Write, 1.75 hours)
- "Dennett (Daniel) - The Fantasy of First-Person Science" (Write, 1.5 hours)
- "Dennett (Daniel) - The Intentional Stance: Preface" (Write, 1.75 hours)
- "Dennett (Daniel) - The Zombic Hunch: Extinction of an Intuition?" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Dennett (Daniel) - Where Am I?" (Read / Write, 20.25 hours)
- "Devitt (Michael) - Realism and Truth" (Write, 1 hour)
- "Dougherty (Tom) - Future-Bias and Practical Reason" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Dunne (John S.) - City of the Gods: A Study in Myth and Mortality" (Read, 0.25 hours)
- "Erber (Joan T.) & Szuchman (Lenore T.) - Great Myths of Aging: Living Contexts" (Read, 0.25 hours)
- "Farris (Joshua) - What’s So Simple About Personal Identity?" (Read / Write, 0.75 hours)
- "Francione (Gary) - Animals - Property or Persons?" (Read, 0.25 hours)
- "Francione (Gary) - Comparable Harm and Equal Inherent Value: The Problem of the Dog in the Lifeboat" (Read, 0.25 hours)
- "Francione (Gary) - Ecofeminism and Animal Rights: A Review of 'Beyond Animal Rights: A Feminist Caring Ethic for the Treatment ofAnimals'" (Read, 0.25 hours)
- "Francione (Gary) - Equal Consideration and the Interest of Nonhuman Animals in Continued Existence: A Response to Professor Sunstein" (Read, 0.25 hours)
- "Francione (Gary) - Introduction to Animal Rights: Your Child or the Dog?" (Write, 1.5 hours)
- "Francione (Gary) - Personhood, Property and Legal Competence" (Read / Write, 1 hour)
- "Francione (Gary) - Reflections on 'Animals, Property, and the Law' and 'Rain Without Thunder'" (Read / Write, 1 hour)
- "Francione (Gary) - Taking Sentience Seriously" (Read, 0.25 hours)
- "Francione (Gary) - The Abolition of Animal Use Versus the Regulation of Animal Treatment" (Read / Write, 1 hour)
- "Francione (Gary) - The Use of Nonhuman Animals in Biomedical Research: Necessity and Justification" (Read, 0.25 hours)
- "Gasser (Georg) & Stefan (Matthias) - Personal Identity: Complex or Simple? Introduction" (Write, 1.25 hours)
- "Genova (Lisa) - Still Alice" (Read / Write, 1.75 hours)
- "Guardian Newspaper - First full body transplant is two years away, surgeon claims" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Guardian Newspaper - I'll do the first human head transplant" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Hacker (P.M.S.) - An Intellectual Entertainment - The Nature of the Mind" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Harnish (Robert M.) - Basic Topics in the Philosophy of Language: Introduction" (Read / Write, 8.75 hours)
- "Hintikka (Jaakko) - Cogito, Ergo Sum as an Inference and a Performance" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Hintikka (Jaakko) - Cogito, Ergo Sum: Inference or Performance?" (Read / Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Hintikka (Jaakko) - The Cartesian Cogito, Epistemic Logic and Neuroscience: Some Surprising Interrelations" (Read / Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Honderich (Ted) - Actual consciousness: database, physicalities, theory, criteria, no unique mystery" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Kluger (Jeffrey) - The Amazing Science Behind Pets That Find Their Way Home" (Read / Write, 2.5 hours)
- "Kripke (Saul) - Philosophical Troubles: Collected Papers, Volume 1 - Introduction" (Write, 1.75 hours)
- "Kripke (Saul) - The First Person" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Layard (Antonia) - Review of Animals, Property and the Law by Gary L. Francione" (Read / Write, 1 hour)
- "Levine (Lee I.) - The Synagogue" (Read, 0.25 hours)
- "Lewis (David) - Philosophical Papers Volume II: Introduction" (Read / Write, 4 hours)
- "LoLordo (Antonia) - Jonathan Edwards’s Argument Concerning Persistence" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "New Scientist - First human head transplant could happen in two years" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Noonan (Harold) - The Complex and Simple Views of Personal Identity" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "O'Hear (Anthony), Ed. - Mind, Self and Person: Introduction" (Write, 2 hours)
- "Olson (Eric) - Life After Death and the Devastation of the Grave" (Write, 8 hours)
- "Plantinga (Alvin) - Where the Conflict Really Lies: Science, Religion, and Naturalism - Preface" (Read / Write, 5.25 hours)
- "Preti (Consuelo) - On Kripke" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Pross (Addy) - What Is Life?" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Pynes (Christopher A.) - Review of Animals as Persons: Essays on the Abolition of Animal Exploitation by Gary L. Francione" (Read / Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Regan (Tom) - The Case for Animal Rights: Preface" (Read / Write, 1.75 hours)
- "Schwartz (Stephen P.) - Naming, Necessity and Natural Kinds: Introduction" (Write, 1 hour)
- "Seeger (Max) - Immunity and Self-Awareness" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Sheldrake (Rupert) - A New Science of Life: The Hypothesis of Formative Causation" (Write, 1.25 hours)
- "Sider (Ted) - Comments on Saul Kripke’s Philosophical Troubles" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Smart (J.C.C.) - Sensations and Brain Processes" (Read, 0.5 hours)
- "Southgate (Susan Jane) - Personal Identity: The Simple View" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Sprevak (Mark) & Statham (David) - Group Minds and Explanatory Simplicity" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Stear (Nils-Hennes) - Imaginative and Fictionality Failure: A Normative Approach" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Steiner (Gary) - Animals as Persons: Foreward" (Read / Write, 2 hours)
- "Stingl (Michael) - Still Waiting for Rain: Review of 'Rain Without Thunder' by Gary L. Francione" (Read / Write, 1.5 hours)
- "Strawson (Galen) - 'The Secrets of All Hearts': Locke on Personal Identity" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Animal Rights" (Write, 5.75 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Baker" (Write, 1 hour)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Naturalism" (Write, 9.25 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Simple View" (Write, 1.25 hours)
- "Walsh (Denis) - Naturalism, Evolution and Mind: Editor's Introduction" (Read / Write, 10.25 hours)
- "Wicklund (Petra Renée) - Abrogating Property Status in the Fight for Animal Rights: Review of 'Rain Without Thunder' by Gary L. Francione" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Wright (Crispin) - The Conceivability of Naturalism" (Write, 0.75 hours)
- "Zimmerman (Dean) - Born Yesterday: Personal Autonomy for Agents without a Past" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- Thesis - Lectures (Total Hours = 4)
- Thesis - Research Repositioning
Thesis Background (Total Hours = 45.25)
- Thesis Background - Reading / Writing (Total Hours = 7.5)
- Thesis Background - Books Admin (Total Hours = 33.25)
- "Admin - Catalogue Papers and Books (including Abstract improvements)" (2 hours)
- Admin - Catalogue Papers and Books (including Abstract improvements) - Armstrong (0.75 hours)
- Admin - Catalogue Papers and Books (including Abstract improvements) - Baker (6 hours)
- Admin - Catalogue Papers and Books (including Abstract improvements) - Dennett (8.25 hours)
- Admin - Catalogue Papers and Books (including Abstract improvements) - Francione (2 hours)
- Admin - Catalogue Papers and Books (including Abstract improvements) - Kripke (2.25 hours)
- Admin - Catalogue Papers and Books (including Abstract improvements) - Singer (1.5 hours)
- Admin - Catalogue Papers and Books (including Abstract improvements) - Springer Downloads (10.5 hours)
- Thesis Background - Status
Plans for the Near Future – Top Priority Tasks
- I now have a clear idea of what I want to do over the next 3 years9, 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.
- An “ideal” next step (and one previously suggested) is to ensure that everything of relevance that I have actually read is written up and incorporated in my Notes database and only later – and secondly – consider anything that I have not yet read. This would require discipline, in that interesting new stuff is always turning up, and would be an iterative process. Further, given I’m not getting any younger, it could also be wasting time which should be focussed on using the most relevant materials.
- So, if what I’ve read and written on – in the form of particular papers on a particular topic – is most relevant, I’ll “process” that, but otherwise will start anew.
- As far as effort is concerned, I plan to maintain the 18 hours / week planned (and exceeded) in the last two quarters – though this will increase once I’ve caught up with the backlog of work on my web-tools10 project.
- So, the tasks for the next quarter are:-
- Continue with my Thesis11; in particular fill out those sections that I can write something on without further research.
- Complete a full review and update of the Notes I’ve created on Personal Identity, focusing on those with least content.
- Make progress on specific Chapters, using the materials below …
- Chapter_212 (What Are We?). Focussing on:-
- Human Beings:-
- "Johnston (Mark) - 'Human Beings' Revisited: My Body is Not an Animal", but first complete a review of
- "Johnston (Mark) - Human Beings".
- Selves:-
- "Dainton (Barry) - Self: Philosophy In Transit",
- "O'Hear (Anthony), Ed. - Mind, Self and Person".
- Chapter_613 (Animalism). Focussing on:-
- "Olson (Eric) - The Human Animal - Personal Identity Without Psychology", my core text,
- "Merricks (Trenton) - Objects and Persons",
- "Bailey (Andrew M.) - The Elimination Argument",
- "Olson (Eric) - On Parfit's View That We Are Not Human Beings",
- "Olson (Eric) - The Metaphysical Implications of Conjoined Twining",
- "Olson (Eric) - The Role of the Brainstem in Personal Identity",
- "Shoemaker (Sydney) - Persons, Animals, and Identity",
- "Snowdon (Paul) - Persons, Animals, Ourselves".
- Chapter_714 (The Constitution View):-
- Start a serious review of "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - Persons and Bodies: A Constitution View", my other core text.
- Read and review "Corcoran (Kevin) - Rethinking Human Nature: A Christian Materialist Alternative to the Soul".
- Chapter_1115 (Resurrection):-
- Start a thorough review of "Martin (L. Michael) & Augustine (Keith) - The Myth of an Afterlife: The Case against Life After Death",
- Start a review of "Luper (Steven), Ed. - The Cambridge Companion to Life and Death", especially
- "Olson (Eric) - The Nature of People",
- Read and review "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - Death and the Afterlife",
- "Corcoran (Kevin) - Dualism, Materialism and the Problem of Post Mortem Survival".
- As background tasks:-
- Convert old PDF-précis, Etc16. to Notes,
- Complete cataloguing the books downloaded from Springer,
- Continue with "Marshall (Richard) - Philosophy at 3:AM: Questions and Answers with 25 Top Philosophers",
- Complete "Erber (Joan T.) & Szuchman (Lenore T.) - Great Myths of Aging",
- Complete "Dunne (John S.) - City of the Gods: A Study in Myth and Mortality",
- Keep up with the Journals via JSTOR17.
Summary of Progress to Date
This was hived off to a separate Note18 back in 2010, and hasn’t changed much since.
In-Page Footnotes
Footnote 9:
- Hopefully, I may complete, or get stuck, earlier.
- By “3 years”, I mean the period ending on my 65th birthday – ie. 13/11/2018. This is not to slip!
- 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 59)
Table of 12 Later Versions of this Note (of 40)
| This version updated |
Reference for this Topic |
Parent Topic |
| 07/01/2016 00:59:02 |
518 (Status: Personal Identity (2015 - December)) |
Status: Summary (2026 - March) |
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Text Colour Conventions
- Blue: Text by me; © Theo Todman, 2026