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Status Reports
Status: Personal Identity (2018 - September)
(Text as at 10/10/2018 16:43:41)
*** 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 best place to find my current views is here2.
- The jumping-off point for my thesis is here3, and a progress dashboard is here4, though neither of these has changes for some considerable time.
Summary of Progress during July - September 2018
- I spent 239 hours in 3Q18 on this Project, or related work (1143 hours YTD, where for "YTD" - Year to Date - I mean the (academic) year that commenced in October 2017). That's 92% of the planned effort (95% YTD). Overall, 41% of my Project effort in the Quarter was directed towards this project (making 47% YTD) - as against 51% planned (47% YTD).
- My planned effort was 20 hours / week5. Unfortunately, like last quarter, I failed to achieving it – though wasn’t too far off. Moreover, most of the effort expended was on relevant items!
- The main focus of the quarter was that I continued updating my Notes on Personal Identity. As noted in recent reports, I had decided to change my approach in the short term. Rather than spending ages researching the reading lists, I’d intended just to list those books / papers on the relevant topic that I’ve actually read, and supply brief text. However, I’ve been using my auto-XRef routines to develop the reading lists, which – while useful – has held things up a bit. As a second pass I’ll use what I’ve read to update that text.
- The detailed list below reflects the Notes updated together with associated papers where I could be bothered to record time against these separately.
- In addition:-
- Progress between reports can be obtained from the relevant section of my Summary Task List6. More detail follows:-
Thesis (Total Hours = 193.75)
- Thesis - Reading / Writing (Total Hours = 170)
- "Aaronovitch (David), Harari (Yuval Noah) - Interview with Yuval Noah Harari" (Read / Write, 2.5 hours)
- "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - Persons and Bodies: A Constitution View - Preface" (Write, 1 hour)
- "Bauer (Rudolph) - The Direct Experience of Our Ontological Sense of Being as Self" (Read / Write, 0.75 hours)
- "Bench-Capon (T.J.M.) - A Note on Mr. Karmo's Disturbances" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Bridle (James) - New Dark Age: Technology and the End of the Future" (Read / Write, 1.75 hours)
- "Casati (Roberto) & Varzi (Achille) - Holes" (Read, 0.5 hours)
- "Cottingham (John) - Why we are not 'persons'" (Read / Write, 4 hours)
- "Ettenberg (Jodi) - Silence and Spiders at a 10-Day Vipassana Meditation Course" (Read, 1.25 hours)
- "Evans (Jules) - Caves all the way down" (Read / Write, 1 hour)
- "Frederick (Shane) - Time Preference & Personal Identity" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Gasser (Georg) - Personal Identity and Resurrection: Bibliography" (Write, 3.5 hours)
- "Gazzaniga (Michael S.) - Who's in Charge? Free Will and the Science of the Brain" (Read / Write, 4.5 hours)
- "Geach (Peter) & Stoothoff (Robert) - Symposium: What Actually Exists" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Giralt (Nuria) & Bloom (Paul) - How Special Are Objects? Children's Reasoning about Objects, Parts, and Holes" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Grayling (Anthony) - Wittgenstein - A Very Short Introduction" (Read / Write, 1.5 hours)
- "Gregg (Justin) - Are Dolphins Really Smart? The Mammal Behind the Myth" (Read, 0.25 hours)
- "Grossman (Lev), Kurzweil (Ray) - 2045: The Year Man Becomes Immortal" (Write, 2 hours)
- "Gunaratana (Bhante Henepola) - What Exactly Is Vipassana Meditation?" (Write, 1.25 hours)
- "Gut (Przemyslaw) - Leibniz: Personal Identity and Sameness of Substance" (Write, 0.75 hours)
- "Harari (Yuval Noah) - Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow" (Read, 10.75 hours)
- "Heyes (Cecilia M.) - Cognitive Gadgets: The Cultural Evolution of Thinking" (Read / Write, 13.75 hours)
- "Heyes (Cecilia M.) - Grist and mills: on the cultural origins of cultural learning" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Heyes (Cecilia M.) - New thinking: the evolution of human cognition" (Read / Write, 0.75 hours)
- "Heyes (Cecilia M.) - Simple minds: a qualified defence of associative learning" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Heyes (Cecilia M.) - Theory of mind in nonhuman primates" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Karmo (Toomas) - Disturbances" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Kwong (Ivy) - A Brutally Honest Review of My 10-Day Silent Meditation Retreat" (Read / Write, 1.75 hours)
- "Langer (Ellen) - Mindfulness - Choice and Control in Everyday Life" (Read, 0.5 hours)
- "Leibniz (Gottfried) - What Identity Or Diversity Is" (Write, 0.75 hours)
- "The Week, Lucas (Louise) & Feng (Emily) - Inside China's Surveillance State" (Read / Write, 3.25 hours)
- "Marshall (Richard) & Lepore (Ernie) - Ernie Lepore: Meaning, Truth, Language, Reality" (Read, 0.25 hours)
- "Meadows (Phillip John) - What Angles Can Tell Us About What Holes Are Not" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Niffenegger (Audrey) - The Time Traveler's Wife" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Price (Huw) & Wharton (Ken) - Taming the quantum spooks" (Read, 0.75 hours)
- "Rosenkrantz (Gary) - Haecceity - Preface" (Read, 0.25 hours)
- "Rovelli (Carlo) - The Order of Time" (Read / Write, 1.75 hours)
- "Ryle (Gilbert) - Philosophical Arguments" (Read / Write, 2.25 hours)
- "Schechter (Elizabeth) - Self-Consciousness and 'Split' Brains: The Minds’ I (TOC & Chapter 1: The Unity Puzzle)" (Write, 2.5 hours)
- "Tekin (Serife) - Self-evident" (Read, 1 hour)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Abortion" (Write, 9 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Contingent Identity" (Write, 3.5 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Dicephalus" (Write, 1.25 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Dualism" (Write, 1 hour)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Embryo" (Write, 1 hour)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Endurantism" (Write, 2.25 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Essentialism" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Exdurantism" (Write, 2.5 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Fetuses" (Write, 3.75 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Functionalism" (Write, 1.25 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Holes & Smiles" (Write, 3.5 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - I" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Individual" (Write, 3 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Intermittent Objects" (Write, 0.75 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Ivan Ilych" (Write, 0.75 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Kinds" (Write, 2.5 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Leibniz" (Write, 3.25 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Mind" (Write, 1.5 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Modality" (Write, 3.5 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Multiple Personality Disorder" (Write, 1.5 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Narrative Identity" (Write, 3.25 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Natural Kinds" (Write, 2.5 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Naturalism" (Write, 3 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Occasional Identity" (Write, 1.75 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Parfit" (Write, 6.25 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Persistence" (Write, 1.5 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Persistence Criteria" (Write, 2.5 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Persistent Vegetative State" (Write, 1.75 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Pregnancy" (Write, 2 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Problem of the Many" (Write, 1.25 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Process Metaphysics" (Write, 0.75 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Properties" (Write, 2.5 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Psychological Criterion" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Quasi-Memory" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Reduplication Objections" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Relative Identity" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Replication" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Self" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Self-Consciousness" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Simple View" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Sleep" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Soul Criterion" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Souls" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Statue and the Clay" (Write, 1 hour)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Substance" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Temporary Intrinsics" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Thisness (Haecceity)" (Write, 1.25 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Tibbles the Cat" (Write, 1.5 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Time" (Write, 1 hour)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Time Travel" (Write, 2 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Twinning" (Write, 4 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Wittgenstein" (Write, 4.25 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Zombies" (Write, 0.75 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Zygote" (Write, 0.75 hours)
- "Torrengo (Giuliano) & Andreoletti (G.) - Time Travel and the Immutability of the Past within B-theoretical Models" (Read / Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Updike (John) - Self-Consciousness" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Wake (Andrew), Spencer (Joshua) & Fowler (Gregory) - Holes as Regions of Spacetime" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Wikipedia - Vipassana" (Read / Write, 1.75 hours)
- Thesis - Discussions (Total Hours = 2.5)
- Thesis - Research Repositioning (Total Hours = 21.25)
Thesis Background (Total Hours = 41.25)
- Thesis Background - Reading / Writing (Total Hours = 31.5)
- "Blackburn (Simon) - Truth: A Guide for the Perplexed" (Read, 9.75 hours)
- Blog - Review & Revise (Write, 3.75 hours)
- "Churchill (Winston S.) - The Sinews of Peace" (Read / Write, 1 hour)
- "Ferguson (Niall), Ed. - Virtual History: Alternatives and Counterfactuals" (Write, 1 hour)
- "Hemingway (Ernest) - The Complete Short Stories" (Read, 0.75 hours)
- "Le Fanu (James) - Doubts About Darwin" (Write, 1 hour)
- "Robinson (Marilynne) - What are We Doing Here?" (Write, 2.5 hours)
- Robinson (Marilynne) - What are We Doing Here? Preface (Read, 0.25 hours)
- Robinson (Marilynne) - What are We Doing Here? What are We Doing Here? (Read, 0.25 hours)
- Robinson (Marilynne) - What are We Doing Here? What is Freedom of Conscience? (Read / Write, 3 hours)
- "Rosling (Hans) - Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World – and Why Things Are Better Than You Think" (Read, 7.5 hours)
- "Simpson (Tom) - Academic Freedom" (Read / Write, 0.75 hours)
- Thesis Background - Books Admin (Total Hours = 3.25)
- Thesis Background - Status
Thesis (Aeon)
Plans for the Near Future – Top Priority Tasks
- I have a clear idea of what I want to do over the coming academic year7, which is to complete a skeleton thesis8 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 Beliefs9 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 had to reduce the plan from 25 hours / week10 to 20 hours / week on account of the distractions noted elsewhere.
- 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 Beliefs11.
- Following that, the focus (if you can call it that) will be on the following bumper list12:-
- Continue with my Thesis13; 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 214 (What Are We?). Focussing on:-
- Human Beings: "Johnston (Mark) - 'Human Beings' Revisited: My Body is Not an Animal".
- Persons: "Cottingham (John) - Why we are not 'persons'".
- Selves:-
- "Dainton (Barry) - Self: Philosophy In Transit",
- "O'Hear (Anthony), Ed. - Mind, Self and Person".
- Chapter 515 (Persistence and Time). Focussing on:-
- "Botros (Sophie) - Truth, Time and History: A Philosophical Enquiry",
- "Miller (Kristie) - Issues in Theoretical Diversity: Persistence, Composition, and Time",
- "Rovelli (Carlo) - The Order of 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 616 (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 "Hershenov (David) - Review of David DeGrazia’s Human Identity and Bioethics".
- Review the work of Elselijn Kingma.
- Chapter 717 (The Constitution View):-
- Start a serious review of "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - Persons and Bodies: A Constitution View", my other core text.
- Write up reviews of papers in "Baker (Lynne Rudder), Etc. - E-Symposium on 'Persons & Bodies: A Constitution View'".
- 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 1018 (Thought Experiments):-
- Investigate Transhumanism19. In particular,
- Read "Bridle (James) - New Dark Age: Technology and the End of the Future",
- Briefly review "O'Connell (Mark) - To be a Machine",
- Read "Bostrom (Nick) - Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies",
- Detailed review of "Graziano (Michael) - Endless fun",
- Complete "Midgley (Mary) - Biotechnology and Monstrosity: Why We Should Pay Attention to the 'Yuk Factor'",
- Complete review of "Shipley (G.J.) - Review of Andy Clark's 'Natural-Born Cyborgs'",
- Complete reading, then review "Harari (Yuval Noah) - Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow".
- Read & review "Fry (Hannah) - Hello World: How to be Human in the Age of the Machine".
- Chapter 1120 (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, Etc21 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 reading:-
→ "Gazzaniga (Michael S.) - Who's in Charge? Free Will and the Science of the Brain"
→ "Hale (Sheila) - The Man Who Lost His Language"
→ "Heyes (Cecilia M.) - Cognitive Gadgets: The Cultural Evolution of Thinking"
→ "Rosling (Hans) - Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World – and Why Things Are Better Than You Think"
→ "Updike (John) - Self-Consciousness"
- Complete my Note on "Smith (Martin) - Why Throwing 92 Heads in a Row Is Not Surprising" and discuss with Pete & Mike.
- Continue reading and reviewing22 papers issued by Aeon,
- Attend Oliver Black’s Salon23(s),
- Keep up with the Journals via JSTOR & Cambridge Core24.
Summary of Progress to Date
This was hived off to a separate Note25 back in 2010, and hasn’t changed much since.
In-Page Footnotes
Footnote 5:
- 25 hours / week is approximately what I’d expect to put in to a part-time PhD. However, this seems unachievable at the moment.
Footnote 7:
- Hopefully, I may complete, or get stuck, earlier.
- I had hoped to complete this phase of my research by my 65th birthday – ie. by 13/11/2018. Previously, I’ve remarked “This is not to slip!” Unfortunately, the distraction of the problems with Coxes Farm – as well as a general lack of focus – have meant that it has.
- 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, Chess and – particularly – my Web-tools project.
- The original reason for deferring to my 65th birthday was 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.
- Unfortunately, my state pension is likely to be more than gobbled up by payments on the mortgage I’ve managed to obtain for Coxes Farm.
Footnote 8:
- 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 still ludicrously inadequate for what I want to achieve, but is what would be expected of a part-time research student.
Footnote 12:
- This is obviously far too long, and keeps getting items “carried forward” tacked on to it.
- Maybe I’ll prune it next time.
Footnote 22:
- 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!
Footnote 23:
Live Version of this Archived Note
Table of 12 Earlier Versions of this Note (of 70)
Table of 12 Later Versions of this Note (of 29)
| This version updated |
Reference for this Topic |
Parent Topic |
| 10/10/2018 16:43:41 |
518 (Status: Personal Identity (2018 - September)) |
Status: Summary (2026 - March) |
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