Theo Todman's Web Page - Notes Pages
Status Reports
Status: Personal Identity (2018 - March)
(Text as at 05/04/2018 10:48:00)
*** 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. Maybe a better place to find my current views is here4.
Summary of Progress during January – March 2018
- I spent 330 hours in 1Q18 on my Thesis or Thesis-related work (638 hours YTD, where for “YTD” – Year to Date – I mean the (academic) year that commenced in October 2017). That’s 103% of the planned effort (105% YTD). Overall, 53% of my Project effort in the Quarter was directed towards this project (making 48% YTD) – as against 43% planned (42% YTD).
- My planned effort is now 25 hours / week: approximately what I’d expect to put in to a part-time PhD. And, for once, I managed to exceed it, and that mostly on relevant items!
- Relatively little time was spent on Aeon reading irrelevant to my research. Indeed, I’ve not had time to read Aeon regularly.
- The main focus of the quarter was that I updated almost all my Notes on Personal Identity. As noted last time, I’ve decided to change my approach in the short term. Rather than spending ages researching the reading lists, I’ll just list those books / papers on the relevant topic that I’ve actually read, and supply brief text. As a second pass I’ll use what I’ve read to update that text. I approximated to this plan – updating all my Notes to reflect the new format – but didn’t quite have time to add all the items read, though I did research some of the reading lists for those I did add the items read.
- Read "Barua (Ankur) - Revisiting the Rationality of Reincarnation-Talk", which needs a file-note.
- Started reading
→ "Harari (Yuval Noah) - Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind", recommended by Naomi.
→ "Midgley (Mary) - Biotechnology and Monstrosity: Why We Should Pay Attention to the 'Yuk Factor'".
→ "Price (Huw), Cave (Stephen), Iida (Fumiya), Etc. - Preparing for the future: artificial intelligence and us: Part 1".
→ "Price (Huw), Cave (Stephen), Iida (Fumiya), Etc. - Preparing for the future: artificial intelligence and us: Part 2".
→ "Rodger (Daniel), Blackshaw (Bruce P.) & Wilcox (Clinton) - Why arguments against infanticide remain convincing".
- Carried out further work on "Olson (Eric) - Personal Identity - Oxford Bibliographies Online"; enough for now.
- Finished reading "O'Neill (Cathy) - Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy", required reading for all new King’s Cambridge entrants.
- Finished reading "Kazez (Jean) - The Philosophical Parent: Asking the Hard Questions About Having and Raising Children", which requires a file-note.
- Read "Edmonds (David) & Eidinow (John) - Wittgenstein's Poker".
- Catalogued a few more of the books downloaded from Springer at the end of 2015.
- The detailed list below reflects the Notes updated together with associated papers where I could be bothered to record time against these separately.
- Progress between reports can be obtained from the relevant section of my Summary Task List5. More detail follows:-
Thesis (Total Hours = 257.75)
- Thesis - Reading / Writing (Total Hours = 248.5)
- "Adriaans (Pieter) - Information" (Read / Write, 1.25 hours)
- "Barua (Ankur) - Revisiting the Rationality of Reincarnation-Talk" (Read / Write, 3.75 hours)
- "Beck (Julie) - Why We Forget Most of the Books We Read" (Read / Write, 1 hour)
- "Beckwith (Francis J.) - Potentials and burdens: a reply to Giubilini and Minerva" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Bird (Alexander) & Tobin (Emma) - Natural Kinds" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Blatti (Stephan) - A New Argument for Animalism" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Blatti (Stephan) - Animalism (Continuum)" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Blatti (Stephan) - Animalism (SEP)" (Write, 0.75 hours)
- "Blatti (Stephan) - Animalism and its Implications" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Blatti (Stephan) - Animalism and Personal Identity" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Blatti (Stephan) - Animalism Unburdened" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Blatti (Stephan) - Animalism, Dicephalus, and Borderline Cases" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Blatti (Stephan) - Death's Distinctive Harm" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Blatti (Stephan) - Disjunctivism" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Blatti (Stephan) - Headhunters" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Blatti (Stephan) - Material Constitution" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Blatti (Stephan) - Mortal harm and the antemortem experience of death" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Blatti (Stephan) - No Impediment to Solidity as Impediment" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Blatti (Stephan) - Review of 'The Rise and Fall of Soul and Self', by Raymond Martin and John Barresi" (Read / Write, 2 hours)
- "Blatti (Stephan) - We Are Animals" (Read / Write, 5 hours)
- "Blatti (Stephan) & Lapointe (Sandra) - Ontology After Carnap: Introduction" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Blatti (Stephan) & Snowdon (Paul), Eds. - Animalism: Introduction" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Blatti (Stephan), Ed. - The Lives of Human Animals" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Booth (Katie) - What I learned about disability and infanticide from Peter Singer" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Braddon-Mitchell (David) & Miller (Kristie) - How To Be A Conventional Person" (Read, 1.75 hours)
- "Burling (Robbins) - The Talking Ape: How Language Evolved" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Camosy (Charles) - Concern for our vulnerable prenatal and neonatal children: a brief reply to Giubilini and Minerva" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Catterson (Troy) - Changing the subject: on the subject of subjectivity" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Catterson (Troy) - Introduction to Synthese Special Issue on Personal Identity" (Read / Write, 1.75 hours)
- "Clay (Alexa) - Growing up alien" (Read / Write, 0.75 hours)
- "Crull (Elise) - You thought quantum mechanics was weird: check out entangled time" (Read / Write, 3.25 hours)
- "De Sousa (Ronald) - Natural-born existentialists" (Read, 1 hour)
- "Doyle (Robert O.) - Coinciding Objects" (Read, 0.5 hours)
- "Doyle (Robert O.) - Composition (Parts and Wholes)" (Read, 1.25 hours)
- "Doyle (Robert O.) - Material Constitution" (Read, 0.5 hours)
- "Earman (John) - Inference, Explanation and Other Philosophical Frustrations: Introduction" (Read / Write, 3.5 hours)
- "Egonsson (Dan) - Dimensions of Dignity: The Moral Importance of Being Human" (Write, 1.25 hours)
- "Engelstein (Stefani) - How the idea of family relationships shaped racial thought" (Read / Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Frankish (Keith) - What do you really believe? Take the Truth-Demon Test" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Gifford (Sheyna) - Life on Mars" (Read, 0.5 hours)
- "Gilmore (Cody) - Location and Mereology" (Read / Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Giracca (Amanda) - Consider the rooster" (Read / Write, 3.25 hours)
- "Giubilini (Alberto) & Minerva (Francesca) - After-birth abortion: why should the baby live?" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Giubilini (Alberto) & Minerva (Francesca) - Clarifications on the moral status of newborns and the normative implications" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Godfrey-Smith (Peter) & Sterelny (Kim) - Biological Information" (Read / Write, 0.75 hours)
- "Greene (Kate) - Planet boredom" (Read, 0.75 hours)
- "Grossman (Neal) - Four Errors Commonly Made by Professional Debunkers" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Hales (Steven D.) - Evidence and the Afterlife" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Hales (Steven D.) - Reincarnation Redux" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Harari (Yuval Noah) - Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind" (Read / Write, 7 hours)
- "Hauskeller (Michael) - Reflections from a Troubled Stream: Giubilini and Minerva on 'After-Birth Abortion'" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Hawley (Katherine) - Persistence and Determination" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Hawley (Katherine) - Temporal Parts" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Herzog (Hal) - Some We Love, Some We Hate, Some We Eat: Why it's So Hard to Think Straight About Animals" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Higham (James P.) - The red and green specialists: why human colour vision is so odd" (Read / Write, 0.75 hours)
- "Hitchcock (Christopher) - Probabilistic Causation" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Ingram (David) & Tallant (Jonathan) - Presentism" (Read / Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Jaworska (Agnieszka) & Tannenbaum (Julie) - The Grounds of Moral Status" (Read / Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Kazez (Jean) - The Philosophical Parent: Asking the Hard Questions About Having and Raising Children" (Read, 11 hours)
- "Kolak (Daniel) - I Am You: The Metaphysical Foundations for Global Ethics" (Write, 1.25 hours)
- "Kolak (Daniel) - Room for a View: On the Metaphysical Subject of Personal Identity" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Kozubek (Jim) - Even if genes affect intelligence, we can’t engineer cleverness" (Read, 0.25 hours)
- "Laing (Jacqueline) - Infanticide: a reply to Giubilini and Minerva" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Levy (Neil) - So you’re too ethical to eat meat; but should cows go extinct?" (Read / Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Liggins (David) - Nihilism without Self-Contradiction" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Lindsay (Grace) - Planes don’t flap their wings: does AI work like a brain?" (Read / Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Lombard (Jay) - Synchronic consciousness from a neurological point of view: the philosophical foundations for neuroethics" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Lornie (Tim) - Sentient Animals, Relational Animals" (Read / Write, 1 hour)
- "Mackie (Penelope) - Coincidence and Identity" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Manninen (Bertha Alvarez) - Yes, the baby should live: a pro-choice response to Giubilini and Minerva" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Marshall (Dan) & Weatherson (Brian) - Intrinsic vs. Extrinsic Properties" (Read / Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Marshall (Richard) & Williamson (Timothy) - Timothy Williamson: Classical lnvestigations" (Read, 1 hour)
- "Martin (Raymond) - What really matters" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Mascaro (Joe) - To save Earth, go to Mars" (Read, 0.5 hours)
- "McLaughlin (Brian) & Bennett (Karen) - Supervenience" (Read / Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Midgley (Mary) - Biotechnology and Monstrosity: Why We Should Pay Attention to the 'Yuk Factor'" (Read, 2 hours)
- "Mori (Maurizio) - The Italian reaction to the Giubilini and Minerva paper" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Newman (Sandra) - Infanticide" (Read, 0.5 hours)
- "Olson (Eric) - Personal Identity - Oxford Bibliographies Online" (Write, 10.25 hours)
- "Olson (Eric) - Personal Identity (Stanford, 2015)" (Write, 1 hour)
- "Price (Huw) & Wharton (Ken) - Taming the quantum spooks" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Price (Huw), Cave (Stephen), Iida (Fumiya), Etc. - Preparing for the future: artificial intelligence and us: Part 1" (Read / Write, 2 hours)
- "Price (Huw), Cave (Stephen), Iida (Fumiya), Etc. - Preparing for the future: artificial intelligence and us: Part 2" (Read / Write, 2 hours)
- "Rodger (Daniel), Blackshaw (Bruce P.) & Wilcox (Clinton) - Why arguments against infanticide remain convincing" (Read / Write, 2.75 hours)
- "Rovelli (Carlo) - Hot black holes and the arrow of time" (Read / Write, 0.75 hours)
- "Rovelli (Carlo) - This granular life" (Read / Write, 1 hour)
- "Rowland (Katherine) - We are multitudes" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Ruben (David-Hillel) - Explaining Explanation" (Read / Write, 1.75 hours)
- "Salmon (Nathan) - Wholes, Parts, and Numbers" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Schechtman (Marya) - Diversity in unity: practical unity and personal boundaries" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Seibt (Johanna) - Process Philosophy" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Streiffer (Robert) - Human/Non-Human Chimeras" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Tekin (Serife) - Self-evident" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Thomson (Garrett) - Counting subjects" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Animal Rights" (Write, 1 hour)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Animalism" (Write, 3.25 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Animals" (Write, 3.5 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Artifacts" (Write, 1.5 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Baker" (Write, 4.5 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Biological Criterion" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Bodily Continuity" (Write, 1.75 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Body" (Write, 2 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Body Criterion" (Write, 1.25 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Brain" (Write, 3.25 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Brain Criterion" (Write, 1.25 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Brain State Transfer" (Write, 1 hour)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Brain Transplants" (Write, 3.25 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Buddhism" (Write, 1 hour)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Cartesian Ego" (Write, 1 hour)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Chimera" (Write, 1.25 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Coincidence" (Write, 2 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Concepts" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Connectedness vs Continuity" (Write, 1 hour)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Consciousness" (Write, 4.75 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Constitution" (Write, 4 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Constitution View" (Write, 1.5 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Constitution View - Objections" (Write, 1.5 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Continuity" (Write, 1 hour)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Convention" (Write, 1 hour)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Corpses" (Write, 1.5 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Counting Persons" (Write, 2.25 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Criteria of Identity" (Write, 1.5 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Cyborgs" (Write, 1.75 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Degrees of Personhood" (Write, 1.25 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Dicephalus" (Write, 3 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Essentialism" (Write, 2 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Existence" (Write, 2.25 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Explanation" (Write, 1.5 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - First-Person Perspective" (Write, 2.75 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Fission" (Write, 4.25 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Forensic Property" (Write, 1.25 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Free Will" (Write, 1.75 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Fusion" (Write, 1 hour)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Future Great Pain Test" (Write, 1 hour)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - General Surveys" (Write, 1.5 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Homo Sapiens" (Write, 4.25 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Human Beings" (Write, 1.75 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Human Persons" (Write, 1.5 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Hume" (Write, 1.25 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Hylomorphism" (Write, 0.75 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Immortality" (Write, 2.5 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Indeterminate Identity" (Write, 2.75 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Information" (Write, 2.75 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Interregnum" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Kant" (Write, 1.25 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Language of Thought" (Write, 1.25 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Lewis" (Write, 1.75 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Life" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Life After Death" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Locke" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Logic of Identity" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Makropulos Case" (Write, 1.75 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Matter" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Memory" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Mereology" (Write, 2.5 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Metamorphosis" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Methuselah" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Multiple Personality Disorder" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Near Death Experiences" (Write, 0.75 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Non-Human Persons" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Numerical Idenity" (Write, 0.75 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Ontology" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Organisms" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Out of Body Experiences" (Write, 1.25 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Perdurantism" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Persistence Criteria" (Write, 0.75 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Persistent Vegetative State" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Person" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Personality" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Phase Sortals" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Physical Continuity" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Physicalism" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Probability" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Process Metaphysics" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Psychological Continuity" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Psychological Continuity - Forward" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Psychological View" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Psychology" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Psychopathology" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Reductionism" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Reincarnation" (Write, 2 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Religion" (Write, 0.75 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Resurrection" (Write, 4 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Scattered Objects" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Self-Consciousness" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Semantics" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Siliconisation" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Sortals" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Supervenience" (Write, 3.5 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Survival" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Taking Persons Seriously" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Thought Experiments" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Transplants" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Vague Identity" (Write, 1.5 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Vagueness" (Write, 4.5 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Wantons" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - What Are We?" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - What Matters" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Wiggins" (Write, 7.25 hours)
- "Tooley (Michael) - Abortion and Infanticide" (Read / Write, 2.75 hours)
- "Torrengo (Giuliano) & Mariani (Cristian) - Review of James Harrington, 'Time: A Philosophical Introduction'" (Read / Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Woodruff (Peter) & Parsons (Terence) - Indeterminancy of Identity of Objects and Sets" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Zovko (Jure) - Metaphysics as Interpretation of Conscious Life: Some Remarks on D. Henrich's and D. Kolak's Thinking" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- Thesis - Discussions
- Thesis - Research Repositioning (Total Hours = 8)
Thesis Background (Total Hours = 62)
- Thesis Background - Reading / Writing (Total Hours = 36.5)
- "Bloodworth (James) - Hired: Six Months Undercover in Low-Wage Britain" (Read, 0.75 hours)
- "Clay (Alexa) - Utopia Inc" (Read / Write, 0.75 hours)
- "Delgado (Mikel Maria) - Tidy birds and neat bees: on conscientiousness in animals" (Read / Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Edmonds (David) & Eidinow (John) - Wittgenstein's Poker" (Read, 12.25 hours)
- "Elliott (Katrina) - Exploring a New Argument for Synchronic Chance" (Read / Write, 0.5 hours)
- "England (Jeremy) - Why trees don’t ungrow" (Read, 1.5 hours)
- "Jackson (Frank) - Grue" (Read, 0.75 hours)
- "Keep (Lou) - Whence comes nihilism, the uncanniest of all guests?" (Write, 0.75 hours)
- "Krishna (Nakul) - Is goodness natural?" (Read, 1.25 hours)
- "Marshall (Richard) & Lynch (Michael) - Michael Lynch: Truth, Reason, and Democracy" (Read, 0.75 hours)
- "Mulgan (Tim) - The ethics of ET" (Write, 1 hour)
- "Nakamoto (Satoshi) - Bitcoin - A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System" (Write, 0.75 hours)
- O'Neill (Cathy) - Weapons of Math Destruction: Discussion with Naomi (Read, 0.5 hours)
- "O'Neill (Cathy) - Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy" (Read, 8.25 hours)
- "Rees (Martin) - Black holes are simpler than forests and science has its limits" (Read, 0.75 hours)
- "Ruggles (Laura) - The minds of plants" (Read, 0.75 hours)
- "Stillman (Jessica) - Why You Should Surround Yourself With More Books Than You'll Ever Have Time to Read" (Read, 0.5 hours)
- "Wertheim (Margaret) - Radical dimensions" (Read / Write, 1.5 hours)
- "Wertheim (Margaret) - The sexism problem" (Read / Write, 1 hour)
- "Willingham (Emily) - The non-binary brain" (Read / Write, 1.5 hours)
- "Zalta (Edward N.) - Gottlob Frege" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- Thesis Background - Books Admin (Total Hours = 19.75)
- Thesis Background - Status
Thesis (Aeon) (Total Hours = 10.75)
- "Alvarez (Walter) - Laws or comets?" (Read, 1 hour)
- "Bruen (Matthew) - How the whalers of Moby-Dick could help put humans on Mars" (Read / Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Hains (Brigid) & Hains (Paul) - Aeon: A-B (& General)" (Write, 3 hours)
- "Nolan (Cathal J.) - Wars are not won by military genius or decisive battles" (Read / Write, 0.75 hours)
- "Orent (Wendy) - The Black Death" (Read, 0.5 hours)
- "Orrell (David) - Economics is quantum" (Read / Write, 1.5 hours)
- "Sepkoski (David) - What a fossil revolution reveals about the history of ‘big data’" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Shenker (Jack) - Democratising the digital" (Read, 1 hour)
- "Smith (David Livingstone) - Why we love tyrants" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Thomas (Courtney Erin) - The early moderns had their work cut out curating their honour" (Read, 0.25 hours)
- "Twigger (Robert) - The legend of the Legion" (Read, 1 hour)
- "Williams (Florence) - Feel-good fractals - from ocean waves to Jackson Pollock’s art" (Read / Write, 0.75 hours)
Plans for the Near Future – Top Priority Tasks
- I now have a clear idea of what I want to do over the current academic year6, 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.
- First of all, continually review the Note describing my Current Beliefs8 on the topic of Personal Identity, and ensure the associated Notes have some text. Let Sophie have a look at it, and consider submission to Aeon.
- 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’ve retained the plan at 25 hours / week. This is still ludicrously inadequate for what I want to achieve, but is what would be expected of a part-time research student.
- So, despite the above caveat, the primary tasks for the next quarter will be to complete a full review and update of the Notes I’ve created on Personal Identity, focusing on those directly referenced by my Current Beliefs9.
- Following that, the focus (if you can call it that) will be on the following bumper list10:-
- Continue with my Thesis11; 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 212 (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 513 (Persistence and Time). Focussing on:-
- "Botros (Sophie) - Truth, Time and History: A Philosophical Enquiry",
- "Miller (Kristie) - Issues in Theoretical Diversity: Persistence, Composition, and Time",
- "Wiggins (David) - Continuants: Their Activity, Their Being, and Their Identity",
- Complete "Lebens (Samuel) & Goldschmidt (Tyron) - The Promise of a New Past", and send to Sophie Botros & Michael J. Alter,
- Complete running through relevant pages from Robert O. Doyle.
- Chapter 614 (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",
- Review the work of Elselijn Kingma.
- Complete "Rodger (Daniel), Blackshaw (Bruce P.) & Wilcox (Clinton) - Why arguments against infanticide remain convincing" and other works on infanticide.
- Chapter 715 (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".
- Write a Note on "Loose (Jonathan) - Constitution and the Falling Elevator: The Continuing Incompatibility of Materialism and Resurrection Belief".
- Chapter 1016 (Thought Experiments):-
- Investigate Transhumanism17.
- In particular,
- Briefly review "O'Connell (Mark) - To be a Machine",
- Read "Bostrom (Nick) - Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies",
- Review "Rowson (Jonathan) - Deep Thinking?",
- Complete "Silver (David), Hassabis (Demis), Etc. - Mastering Chess and Shogi by Self-Play with a General Reinforcement Learning Algorithm" and related papers,
- Detailed review of "Graziano (Michael) - Endless fun".
- Complete:-
→ "Midgley (Mary) - Biotechnology and Monstrosity: Why We Should Pay Attention to the 'Yuk Factor'",
→ "Price (Huw), Cave (Stephen), Iida (Fumiya), Etc. - Preparing for the future: artificial intelligence and us: Part 1",
→ "Price (Huw), Cave (Stephen), Iida (Fumiya), Etc. - Preparing for the future: artificial intelligence and us: Part 2",
- Chapter 1118 (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",
- Start a review of "Bradley (Ben), Feldman (Fred) & Johansson (Jens) - The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Death", especially
→ "Zimmerman (Dean) - Personal Identity and the Survival of Death",
- Read and review
→ "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - Death and the Afterlife", and
→ "Corcoran (Kevin) - Dualism, Materialism and the Problem of Post Mortem Survival".
- Write a file-note on "Barua (Ankur) - Revisiting the Rationality of Reincarnation-Talk".
- As background tasks:-
- Convert old PDF-précis, Etc19 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 "Harari (Yuval Noah) - Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind",
- Write a file-note on "Kazez (Jean) - The Philosophical Parent: Asking the Hard Questions About Having and Raising Children",
- Complete my Note on "Smith (Martin) - Why Throwing 92 Heads in a Row Is Not Surprising" and discuss with Pete & Mike.
- Continue reading and reviewing20 papers issued by Aeon,
- Attend Oliver Black’s Salon,
- Keep up with the Journals via JSTOR & Cambridge Core21.
Summary of Progress to Date
This was hived off to a separate Note22 back in 2010, and hasn’t changed much since.
In-Page Footnotes
Footnote 6:
- Hopefully, I may complete, or get stuck, earlier.
- By “current academic year”, 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 Music, Philosophy of Religion 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 10:
- This is obviously far too long, and keeps getting items “carried forward” tacked on to it.
- Maybe I’ll prune it next time.
Footnote 20:
- Try to keep up to date, but only read those that are strictly relevant – ignore the rest!
- At present I have a relatively small reading-backlog, and a much larger reviewing-backlog.
- Try to add a brief comment for each paper – maybe at the expense of reading the full text!
Live Version of this Archived Note
Table of 12 Earlier Versions of this Note (of 68)
Table of 12 Later Versions of this Note (of 30)
Summary of Notes Links from this Page
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Summary of Note Links to this Page
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Text Colour Conventions
- Blue: Text by me; © Theo Todman, 2026