Theo Todman's Web Page - Notes Pages
Status Reports
Status: Personal Identity (2017 - March)
(Text as at 10/04/2017 23:38:24)
*** 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 January – March 2017
- I spent 150 hours in 1Q17 on my Thesis or Thesis-related work (318 hours YTD, where for “YTD” – Year to Date – I mean the (academic) year that commenced in October 2016). That’s 84% of the planned effort (88% YTD). Overall, 22% of my Project effort in the Quarter was directed towards this project (making 24% YTD) – as against 29% planned (29% YTD).
- In addition to again spending less time than planned, I again didn’t spend it on the tasks planned.
- As last time, I did spend some time (about 33 hours) improving my Notes and the reading-lists associated therewith. Further effort was booked to the papers in the reading lists.
- Also, I had a careful look through the essays in "Blatti (Stephan) & Snowdon (Paul), Eds. - Animalism: New Essays on Persons, Animals, and Identity", though I haven’t engaged with them in detail yet.
- A considerable amount of time was spent on papers issued under the aegis of "Hains (Brigid) & Hains (Paul) - Aeon: A-B (& General)". These are very interesting, and of wide scope. Not many of them are strictly germane to my research interests, but I intend to continue to read – and where possible remark on – the one or two of interest that appear daily. It may be that this becomes too distracting and time-consuming to continue with.
- As another background task I’ve taken up re-reading and reviewing "Somerset Maugham (W.) - Short Stories".
- Completed reading "Ayer (A.J.) - Part of My Life".
- At last, completed a draft version of “Why Play Bridge?4”.
- Progress between reports can be obtained from the relevant section of my Summary Task List5.
- More detail follows:-
Thesis (Total Hours = 74)
- Thesis - Reading / Writing (Total Hours = 72.25)
- "Aamodt (Caitlin) - On shared false memories: what lies behind the Mandela effect?" (Read / Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Baggini (Julian) - Life-and-death thought experiments are correctly unsolvable" (Read / Write, 0.75 hours)
- "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - Animalism vs. Constitutionalism" (Read / Write, 1.25 hours)
- "Bess (Michael) - Why upgrading your brain could make you less human" (Read, 0.25 hours)
- "Blatti (Stephan) - Headhunters" (Read / Write, 1.25 hours)
- "Blatti (Stephan) & Snowdon (Paul), Eds. - Animalism: Introduction" (Read / Write, 3.25 hours)
- "Campbell (Tim) & McMahan (Jeff) - Animalism and the Varieties of Conjoined Twinning" (Read / Write, 1.25 hours)
- "Chandler (Hugh S.) - Theseus' Clothes-Pin" (Read / Write, 2 hours)
- "Hershenov (David) - Four-Dimensional Animalism" (Read / Write, 1.25 hours)
- "Hirsch (Eli) - Minds and Bodies: Introduction" (Read / Write, 1.25 hours)
- "Hirsch (Eli) - The Persistence of Objects: Introduction" (Read / Write, 1.25 hours)
- "Jawer (Michael) - Do only humans have souls, or do animals possess them too?" (Read / Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Johansson (Jens) - Animal Ethics" (Read / Write, 1.25 hours)
- "Johnston (Mark) - Remnant Persons: Animalism's Undoing" (Read / Write, 1.25 hours)
- "Laing (Olivia) - Me, myself and I" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Lowenthal ( David) - Material Preservation and Its Alternatives" (Read / Write, 1.5 hours)
- "Madden (Rory) - Thinking Parts" (Read / Write, 1.25 hours)
- "Medlock (Ben) - The body is the missing link for truly intelligent machines" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Ohlson (Kristin) - The great forgetting" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Olson (Eric) - Ethics and the Generous Ontology" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Olson (Eric) - Properties as parts of ordinary objects" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Olson (Eric) - Review of P. Snowdon, Persons, Animals, Ourselves" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Olson (Eric) - The Remnant-Person Problem" (Read / Write, 1.25 hours)
- "Olson (Eric) - The Zombies Among Us" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Olson (Eric) - What Does It Mean To Say That We Are Animals?" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Olson (Eric) - Why Is Death Bad?" (Read / Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Parfit (Derek) - Nagel's Brain" (Write, 4.25 hours)
- "Parfit (Derek) - The Closest Continuer Schema" (Write, 1 hour)
- "Parfit (Derek) - We Are Not Human Beings" (Read / Write, 1.25 hours)
- "Reid (Mark D.) - A Case in Which Two Persons Exist in One Animal" (Read / Write, 1.25 hours)
- "Robinson (Denis) - Constitution and the Debate between Animalism and Psychological Views" (Read / Write, 1.25 hours)
- "Savulescu (Julian) - Should a human-pig chimera be treated as a person?" (Read / Write, 1.25 hours)
- "Shoemaker (David) - The Stony Metaphysical Heart of Animalism" (Read / Write, 1.25 hours)
- "Shoemaker (Sydney) - Thinking Animals Without Animalism" (Read / Write, 1.25 hours)
- "Snowdon (Paul) - Animalism and the Unity of Consciousness: Some Issues" (Read / Write, 1.25 hours)
- "Suddendorf (Thomas) - The Gap" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Androids" (Write, 1.25 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Animalism - Objections" (Write, 1 hour)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Animation" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Biological View" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Brains in Vats" (Write, 1.75 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Causality" (Write, 1.25 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Cerebrum" (Write, 1 hour)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Chimera" (Write, 1.25 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Clinical Observations" (Write, 1 hour)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Clones" (Write, 2.5 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Closest Continuer" (Write, 6.5 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Logic of Identity" (Write, 1 hour)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Persistence" (Write, 2 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Problem of the Many" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Ship of Theseus" (Write, 8.75 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Sorites" (Write, 2 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Twinning" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Unger (Peter) - The Problem of the Many" (Write, 0.75 hours)
- Thesis - Discussions (Total Hours = 1.25)
- Thesis - Research Repositioning (Total Hours = 0.5)
Thesis Background (Total Hours = 76.5)
- Thesis Background - Reading / Writing (Total Hours = 70)
- "Adamson (Peter) - If Aquinas is a philosopher then so are the Islamic theologians" (Read / Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Addyman (Caspar) - Why playing peekaboo with babies is a very serious matter" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- Alain de Botton (Read, 0.25 hours)
→ See "Admin - Thesis - Outline & Initial Research (Jan - March)"
- "Andersen (Ross) - Omens" (Read / Write, 1 hour)
- "Angle (Stephen C.), Appiah (Anthony Kwame), Baggini (Julian), Etc - In defence of hierarchy" (Read / Write, 0.75 hours)
- "APA - Newsletter on Philosophy and Computers" (Read, 2.5 hours)
- "Ayer (A.J.) - More of My Life" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Ayer (A.J.) - Part of My Life" (Read / Write, 14.75 hours)
- "Ball (Philip) - Too Many Worlds" (Read, 0.5 hours)
- "Bartlett (Jamie) - Cover of darkness" (Read / Write, 0.75 hours)
- "Battistella (Edwin) - When nations apologise" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Baumeister (Roy F.) - The meanings of life" (Read / Write, 1 hour)
- "Bergreen (Laurence) - The real Casanova" (Read / Write, 0.75 hours)
- "Berman (Sheri) - It wasn’t just hate. Fascism offered robust social welfare" (Read, 0.25 hours)
- "Botros (Sophie) - Equipoise, Consent and the Ethics of Randomised Clinical Trials" (Read / Write, 10 hours)
- "Buckingham (Angela) - Murder in virtual reality should be illegal" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Camporesi (Silvia) - Who is a sportswoman?" (Read / Write, 1 hour)
- "Case (Holly) - The new authoritarians" (Read / Write, 0.75 hours)
- "Cave (Stephen) - Intelligence: a history" (Read / Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Choi-Fitzpatrick (Austin) - What do slaveholders think?" (Read / Write, 0.75 hours)
- "Christie (Thony) - Galileo’s reputation is more hyperbole than truth" (Read / Write, 0.75 hours)
- "Christie (Thony) - How many great minds does it take to invent a telescope?" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Colquhoun (David) - The problem with p-values" (Read / Write, 0.75 hours)
- "Comfort (Nathaniel) - Why the hype around medical genetics is a public enemy" (Read / Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Crumey (Andrew) - The sun does not rise" (Read / Write, 1 hour)
- "Currie (Adrian) & Turner (Derek) - The missing fossils matter as much as the ones we have found" (Read / Write, 0.75 hours)
- "Dartnell (Lewis) - Out of the ashes" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Del Mar (Maksymilian) - The legal imagination" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Delistraty (Cody) - When it’s good to be bad" (Read / Write, 0.75 hours)
- "Francis (Matthew) - Cognitive celebrity" (Read / Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Frank (Adam) - Minding matter" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Freiman (Christopher) - The desire to fit in is the root of almost all wrongdoing" (Read / Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Furedi (Frank) - Bookish fools" (Read / Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Garfinkel (Simpson L.) - Whatever you do, don’t call this an ‘interesting’ idea" (Read / Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Garrett (Neil) - Dishonesty gets easier on the brain the more you do it" (Read / Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Grant (Angela) - The bilingual brain: why one size doesn’t fit all" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Grant (Sandy) - How playing Wittgensteinian language-games can set us free" (Read / Write, 0.75 hours)
- "Haft (Helen) - Telling memories" (Read / Write, 0.75 hours)
- "Henderson (Gretchen E.) - The history of ugliness shows that there is no such thing" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Henry (Casey Michael) - The only line comedy shouldn’t cross is the no-laughter line" (Read / Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Hossenfelder (Sabine) - Echoes of a black hole" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Jaekl (Philip) - Sleepwalking is the result of a survival mechanism gone awry" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Johnson (David V.) - There’s a Green Card-holder at the heart of Greek philosophy" (Read / Write, 0.75 hours)
- "Koopman (Colin) - The power thinker" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Kozubek (Jim) - Billionaires say they’ll end disease: evolution says otherwise" (Read / Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Kroupa (Pavel) - Has dogma derailed the scientific search for dark matter?" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Larson (Vicki) - A temporary marriage makes more sense than marriage for life" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Lee (Jihyun) - Why the most successful students have no passion for school" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Matthes (Erich Hatala) - Palmyra’s ruins can rebuild our relationship with history" (Read / Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Moore (Adrian W.) - Infinity and beyond" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Moore (Richard) - There is a moral argument for keeping great apes in zoos" (Read / Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Newman (Sandra) - Why men rape" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Pasquale (Frank) - Digital star chamber" (Read / Write, 0.75 hours)
- "Penrose (Roger) - Fashion, Faith, and Fantasy in the New Physics of the Universe" (Read, 0.5 hours)
- "Pettit (Philip) - Hierarchy is either strictly constrained or it is indefensible" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Poole (Steven) - Your point is?" (Read / Write, 1 hour)
- "Robbins (Joel) - How arrogance can make even an obnoxious person popular" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Ruse (Michael) - Does life have a purpose?" (Read / Write, 0.75 hours)
- "Ruse (Michael) - Earth's holy fool?" (Read / Write, 0.75 hours)
- "Sagar (Paul) - The last hollow laugh" (Read / Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Seeber (Barbara) & Berg (Maggie) - The slow professor can dish out a more nutritious education" (Read, 0.25 hours)
- "Sholl (Jonathan) - Nobody is Normal" (Read, 0.75 hours)
- "Simpson (Robert) - ‘Free speech’ is a blunt instrument. Let’s break it up" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Skinner (Michael) - Unified theory of evolution" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Smith (Justin E.H.) - How philosophy came to disdain the wisdom of oral cultures" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- Somerset Maugham (W.) - Short Stories: Jane (Read / Write, 1.5 hours)
- Somerset Maugham (W.) - Short Stories: Sanatorium (Read / Write, 1.75 hours)
- Somerset Maugham (W.) - Short Stories: The Alien Corn (Read, 1 hour)
- Somerset Maugham (W.) - Short Stories: The Princess and the Nightingale (Read / Write, 0.75 hours)
- Somerset Maugham (W.) - Short Stories: The Round Dozen (Read / Write, 1.5 hours)
→ See "Somerset Maugham (W.) - Short Stories"
- "Strawson (Galen) - I am not a story" (Read / Write, 0.75 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Why Play Bridge?" (Write, 4 hours)
- Thesis Background - Books Admin (Total Hours = 4.25)
- Thesis Background - Status (Total Hours = 2.25)
Plans for the Near Future – Top Priority Tasks
- I now have a clear idea of what I want to do over the next 18 months6, which is to complete a skeleton thesis7 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, to balance the books I’ve had to retain planned hours / week at 14 – though this will increase later in the year once I’ve caught up with the backlog of work on my web-tools project8.
- So, the primary tasks for the next quarter will be to
→ Continue my analysis of "Olson (Eric) - The Human Animal - Personal Identity Without Psychology", and
→ Complete a full review and update of the Notes I’ve created on Personal Identity, focusing on those with least content.
- Following that, the focus (if you can call it that) will be on the following bumper list:-
- Continue with my Thesis9; in particular fill out those sections that I can write something on without further research.
- Make progress on specific Chapters, using the materials below …
- Chapter 210 (What Are We?). Focussing on:-
- Human Beings: "Johnston (Mark) - 'Human Beings' Revisited: My Body is Not an Animal".
- Selves:-
- "Dainton (Barry) - Self: Philosophy In Transit",
- "O'Hear (Anthony), Ed. - Mind, Self and Person".
- Chapter 611 (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 712 (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 1113 (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, Etc14. 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",
- Continue reading and reviewing15 papers issued by "Hains (Brigid) & Hains (Paul) - Aeon: A-B (& General)",
- Continue reading and reviewing "Somerset Maugham (W.) - Short Stories",
- Keep up with the Journals via JSTOR16.
Summary of Progress to Date
This was hived off to a separate Note17 back in 2010, and hasn’t changed much since.
In-Page Footnotes
Footnote 6:
- Hopefully, I may complete, or get stuck, earlier.
- By “18 months”, I mean the period ending on my 65th birthday – ie. 13/11/2018. This is not to slip!
- On the plus side, I’m already much further advanced than would be expected of someone commencing a PhD.
- On the minus side, I want to go into much greater depth, and have other projects on the go – most notably Bridge and my Web-tools project.
- The reason for deferring to my 65th birthday is that this is when I get my State Pension. This may not be much, but it’ll make a significant contribution towards the fees and expenses, which I can’t currently afford.
Footnote 7:
- This used to say “complete a thesis …”, which is obviously impossible, given that my idea of a thesis is way in excess of what is required.
Footnote 15:
- Try to keep up to date.
- At present I have a relatively small reading-backlog, and a much larger reviewing-backlog.
- Try to add a brief comment for each paper.
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