Theo Todman's Web Page - Notes Pages
Status Reports
Status: Personal Identity (2018 - December)
(Text as at 06/01/2019 23:36:58)
*** 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 changed for some considerable time.
Summary of Progress during October - December 2018
- I spent 277.25 hours in 4Q18 on this Project, or related work (277.25 hours YTD, where for "YTD" - Year to Date - I mean the (academic) year that commenced in October 2018). That's 106.6% of the planned effort (106.6% YTD). Overall, 46.5% of my Project effort in the Quarter was directed towards this project (making 46.5% YTD) - as against 37% planned (36.9% YTD).
- My planned effort was 20 hours / week5. This quarter – after a late surge – I more than achieved this. Moreover, most of the effort expended was on relevant items!
- My main focus this time round was on "Botros (Sophie) - Truth, Time and History: A Philosophical Enquiry": firstly, to complete reading the book, then to complete going through the bibliography and adding text within my database for all the entries I think are relevant, acquiring those items I didn’t have.
- I also watched and transcribed the associated video "Botros (Sophie) - Truth, Time and History - A Philosophical Inquiry with Dr Sophie Botros", and have spent time adding footnotes.
- In connection with the above, where O’Brien’s views on the unreality of the past receive support, I purchased and started reading "Orwell (George), Davison (Peter), Taylor (D.J.), Ed. - Nineteen Eighty-Four: The Annotated Edition".
- Updated a number of my Notes, though with less zeal than last quarter.
- Made another attempt to read and understand "Lebens (Samuel) & Goldschmidt (Tyron) - The Promise of a New Past". On-going!
- In addition, completed reading
→ "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"
→ "Rovelli (Carlo) - The Order of Time"
→ "Hale (Sheila) - The Man Who Lost His Language"
- Progress between reports can be obtained from the relevant section of my Summary Task List6. More detail follows:-
Thesis (Total Hours = 250.5)
- Thesis - Reading / Writing (Total Hours = 235.75)
- "Anton (Roman) - Re-evaluation of artificial intelligence engine alpha zero" (Read / Write, 0.75 hours)
- "Badham (Paul) - Christian Beliefs About Life After Death" (Write, 0.75 hours)
- "Bedau (Hugo) & Erin (Kelly) - Punishment" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Belot (Gordon) - Dust, Time and Symmetry" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Botros (Sophie) - A Realist Present and a Coherentist Past" (Read, 4.5 hours)
- "Botros (Sophie) - Caught in a Timeless Leibnizian Net" (Read, 3 hours)
- "Botros (Sophie) - Collingwood and Oakeshott: Is History Possible?" (Read, 5.25 hours)
- "Botros (Sophie) - Presentism and Modality" (Read, 3.25 hours)
- "Botros (Sophie) - Projection, Analogy and Meaning" (Read, 3 hours)
- "Botros (Sophie) - Tense Theory" (Read, 3.25 hours)
- "Botros (Sophie) - The Realist/Anti-Realist Wars" (Read, 4 hours)
- "Botros (Sophie) - Truth, Time and History - A Philosophical Inquiry with Dr Sophie Botros" (Write, 15 hours)
- "Botros (Sophie) - Truth, Time and History - A Philosophical Inquiry with Dr Sophie Botros (Shortened Version)" (Write, 0.75 hours)
- "Botros (Sophie) - Truth, Time and History: Bibliography" (Write, 16.5 hours)
- "Bricker (Phillip) - Concrete Possible Worlds" (Write, 0.75 hours)
- "Brock (Stuart) - The Creationist Fiction: The Case against Creationism about Fictional Characters" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Buonomano (Dean) - Your Brain Is a Time Machine: The Neuroscience and Physics of Time" (Read / Write, 1.25 hours)
- "Calosi (Claudio) - Is Parthood Identity?" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Carlyle (Thomas) - The French Revolution" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Carroll (John W.) - Nailed to Hume's Cross?" (Write, 0.75 hours)
- "Caruso (Gregg D.) - Free Will Skepticism and Criminal Behavior: A Public Health-Quarantine Model" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Caruso (Gregg D.) - Public Health and Safety: The Social Determinants of Health and Criminal Behavior" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Caruso (Gregg D.) - Skepticism About Moral Responsibility" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Caruso (Gregg D.) - The Public Health-Quarantine Model" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Copi (Irving M.) - Essence and Accident" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Dennett (Daniel) & Caruso (Gregg D.) - Just deserts" (Read / Write, 3.25 hours)
- "Dorr (Cian) - There are No Abstract Objects" (Write, 0.75 hours)
- "Dorr (Cian) - What We Disagree about When We Disagree about Ontology" (Write, 0.75 hours)
- "Dummett (Michael) - Truth and Other Enigmas: Preface" (Read / Write, 1.25 hours)
- "Earle (William James) - Fugitive Truth" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Edwards (Jim) - Debates About Realism Transposed to a New Key" (Write, 1 hour)
- "Eklund (Matti) - The Picture of Reality as an Amorphous Lump" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Fine (Kit) - Critical Review of Parsons' Non-Existent Objects" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Fine (Kit) - The Non-Identity of a Material Thing and Its Matter" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Fitzgerald (Paul) - The Truth about Tomorrow's Sea Fight" (Write, 0.75 hours)
- "Fry (Hannah) - Hello World: How to be Human in the Age of the Machine" (Read / Write, 0.75 hours)
- "Gazzaniga (Michael S.) - Who's in Charge? Free Will and the Science of the Brain" (Read, 0.25 hours)
- "Goodman (Nelson) - Fact, Fiction and Forecast: Introductions" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Goodman (Nelson) - Languages of Art" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Goodman (Nelson) - The Structure of Appearance" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Hale (Bob) - Modal Fictionalism: A Simple Dilemma" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Hale (Bob) - Realism and Its Oppositions" (Write, 0.75 hours)
- "Hale (Sheila) - The Man Who Lost His Language" (Read / Write, 15.5 hours)
- "Harari (Yuval Noah) - Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow" (Read, 1 hour)
- "Hawthorne (John) - Three-dimensionalism vs. four-dimensionalism" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Heyes (Cecilia M.) - Cognitive Gadgets: The Cultural Evolution of Thinking" (Read / Write, 11 hours)
- "Hirsch (Eli) - Ontological Arguments: Interpretive Charity and Quantifier Variance" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Hirsch (Eli) - Physical Identity" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Horgan (Terence) - The Perils of Epistemic Reductionism" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Horwich (Paul) - Realism Minus Truth" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Jeffrey (Richard) - The Logic of Decision" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Johnston (Mark) - Dispositional Theories of Value" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Kane (Robert) - Incompatibilism" (Write, 0.75 hours)
- "Kaplan (David) - On the Logic of Demonstratives" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Kirkham (Richard L.) - What Dummett Says About Truth and Linguistic Competence" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Klein (Mike) - Google's AlphaZero Destroys Stockfish In 100-Game Match" (Write, 4.25 hours)
- "Kurtz (Roxanne) - Introduction to Persistence: What’s the Problem?" (Read / Write, 6.5 hours)
- "Lebens (Samuel) & Goldschmidt (Tyron) - The Promise of a New Past" (Read / Write, 4.25 hours)
- "Levy (Neil) - Luck and History-Sensitive Compatibilism" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Lewis (David) - Dispositional Theories of Value" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Liu (JeeLoo) - A. N. Prior: The Notion of the Present" (Read / Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Livingston (Paisley) & Sauchelli (Andrea) - Philosophical perspectives on fictional characters" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Loux (Michael) - Realism and Anti-Realism" (Write, 0.75 hours)
- "Lowe (E.J.) - On a Supposed Temporal/Modal Parallel" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "MacIntosh (J.J.) - A Problem About Identity" (Write, 0.75 hours)
- "MacIntosh (J.J.) - Adverbs, Identity, and Multiple Personalities" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "MacIntosh (J.J.) - Reincarnation and Relativized Identity" (Write, 1 hour)
- "MacIntosh (J.J.) - Reincarnation, Closest Continuers, and The Three Card Trick: A Reply To Noonan And Daniels" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "MacIntosh (J.J.) - The Impossibility of Kantian Immortality" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Mackie (Penelope) - Coincidence and modal predicates" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Markosian (Ned) - Restricted Composition" (Read / Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Martin (C.B.) - Dispositions and Conditionals" (Write, 1 hour)
- "Martin (C.B.) & Pfeifer (Karl) - Intentionality and the Non-Psychological" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "McKitrick (Jennifer) - The Bare Metaphysical Possibility of Bare Dispositions" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "McTaggart (J. McT. E.) - The Unreality of Time" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Meincke (Anne Sophie) - The Disappearance of Change: Towards a Process Account of Persistence" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Melia (Joseph) - Ersatz Possible Worlds" (Write, 0.75 hours)
- "Mellor (D.H.) - In Defense of Dispositions" (Write, 1 hour)
- "Menzies (Peter) & Pettit (Philip) - In Defence of Fictionalism about Possible Worlds" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Miller (Alexander) - Realism and Anti-Realism" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Miller (Alexander) - Rule Following, Response Dependence and McDowell’s Debate with Anti-Realism" (Write, 0.75 hours)
- "Miller (Alexander) - What is the Acquisition Argument?" (Read / Write, 0.75 hours)
- "Mink (Louis O.) - Philosophical Analysis and Historical Understanding" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Molnar (George) - Are Dispositions Reducible?" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Mondadori (Fabrizio) & Morton (Adam) - Modal Realism: The Poisoned Pawn" (Write, 1 hour)
- "Mumford (Stephen) - Intentionality and the Physical: A New Theory of Disposition Ascription" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Mumford (Stephen) - The Ungrounded Argument" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Nolan (Daniel) & O'Leary-Hawthorne (John) - Reflexive Fictionalisms" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Noonan (Harold) - Absolute and Relative Identity" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Noonan (Harold) - Moderate Monism and Modality" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Noonan (Harold) - Moderate Monism, Sortal Concepts, and Relative Identity" (Write, 1 hour)
- "Noonan (Harold) - Review of Wiggins's 'Continuants'" (Read / Write, 2.25 hours)
- "Noonan (Harold) - The Possibility of Reincarnation" (Read / Write, 2 hours)
- "Oliver (Donald) - Essence, Accident, and Substance" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Parfit (Derek) - Persons, Bodies, and Human Beings" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Parsons (Terence) - A Meinongian Analysis of Fictional Objects" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Parsons (Terence) - A Prolegomenon to Meinongian Semantics" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Passmore (John) - Narratives and Events" (Read / Write, 1 hour)
- "Pereboom (Derek) & Caruso (Gregg D.) - Hard-Incompatibilist Existentialism: Neuroscience, Punishment, and Meaning in Life" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Perrett (Roy W.) - Rebirth" (Write, 0.75 hours)
- "Pettit (Philip) - Realism and Truth: A Comment on Crispin Wright's Truth and Objectivity" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Place (U.T.) - Intentionality as the Mark of the Dispositional" (Write, 0.75 hours)
- "Prior (Arthur N.) - Changes in Events and Changes in Things" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Prior (Arthur N.) - Diodoran Modalities" (Write, 1 hour)
- "Prior (Arthur N.) - The Notion of the Present" (Read / Write, 1.75 hours)
- "Proudfoot (Diane) - Possible Worlds Semantics and Fiction" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Putnam (Hilary) - Mathematics Without Foundations" (Write, 0.75 hours)
- "Quach (Katyanna) - Checkmate: DeepMind's AlphaZero AI clobbered rival chess app on non-level playing, er, board" (Read / Write, 2 hours)
- "Quine (W.V.) - Two Dogmas of Empiricism" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Raatikainen (Panu) - On the Philosophical Relevance of Gödel's Incompleteness Theorems" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Rhoda (Alan) - Presentism, Truthmakers, and God" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Rosen (Gideon) - A Problem for Fictionalism about Possible Worlds" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Rosen (Gideon) - Modal Fictionalism Fixed" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Rovelli (Carlo) - Reality Is Not What It Seems: The Journey to Quantum Gravity" (Read / Write, 2.5 hours)
- "Rovelli (Carlo) - The Order of Time" (Read / Write, 9.25 hours)
- "Rumfitt (Ian) - Frege's Logicism" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Russell (Bertrand) - History of Western Philosophy" (Write, 2 hours)
- "Russell (Bertrand) - The Analysis of Mind" (Write, 0.75 hours)
- "Sainsbury (Mark) - Crispin Wright: Truth and Objectivity" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Salas (Charles G.) - Collingwood's Historical Principles at Work" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Schaffer (Jonathan) - Causation and Laws of Nature: Reductionism" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Shieh (Sanford) - The Anti-Realist's Past" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Sider (Ted) - Contemporary Debates in Metaphysics: Introduction" (Read / Write, 1.5 hours)
- "Sider (Ted) - Reductive Theories of Modality" (Write, 2 hours)
- "Sider (Ted) - Temporal Parts" (Write, 1 hour)
- "Silver (Albert) - The future is here – AlphaZero learns chess" (Read / Write, 3.25 hours)
- "Silver (David), Hassabis (Demis), Etc. - Mastering the Game of Go without Human Knowledge" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Skorupski (John) - Critical Study: Realism, Meaning & Truth by Crispin Wright" (Write, 1 hour)
- "Skorupski (John) - Meaning, Use, Verification" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Skow (Bradford) - Are Shapes Intrinsic" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Skow (Bradford) - Extrinsic Temporal Metrics" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Skow (Bradford) - Objective Becoming" (Write, 1 hour)
- "Skow (Bradford) - Once Upon a Spacetime" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Skow (Bradford) - Why Does Time Pass?" (Read / Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Smart (J.C.C.) - The Tenseless Theory of Time" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Smith (Michael) - Dispositional Theories of Value" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Smith (Peter) - An Introduction to Formal Logic" (Write, 1 hour)
- "Smith (Quentin) - Problems with the New Tenseless Theory of Time" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Snowdon (Paul) - Persons and Personal Identity" (Write, 1.5 hours)
- "Stern (David G.) - Heraclitus' and Wittgenstein's River Images - Stepping Twice Into The Same River" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Swoyer (Chris) - Abstract Entities" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Thomasson (Amie L.) - Existence Questions" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Thomasson (Amie L.) - Fiction and Intentionality" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Thomasson (Amie L.) - Fiction, Modality and Dependent Abstracta" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Thomasson (Amie L.) - Ontological Innovation in Art" (Write, 1.25 hours)
- "Thomasson (Amie L.) - Ontological Minimalism" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Thomasson (Amie L.) - Speaking of Fictional Characters" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Thomasson (Amie L.) - The Ontology of Art and Knowledge in Aesthetics" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Poverty of Stimulus Arguments" (Read / Write, 1.5 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Chapter 01 (Introduction)" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Closest Continuer" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Free Will" (Write, 1.5 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Properties" (Write, 4.25 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Psychological Criterion" (Write, 1 hour)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Psychopathology" (Write, 1.75 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Quasi-Memory" (Write, 2.25 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Reduplication Objections" (Write, 0.75 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Relative Identity" (Write, 1.75 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Replication" (Write, 0.75 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Self" (Write, 1 hour)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Self-Consciousness" (Write, 3.75 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Simple View" (Write, 0.75 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Sleep" (Write, 3.25 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Temporary Intrinsics" (Write, 0.75 hours)
- "UKMT, du Sautoy (Marcus) - The Ultimate Mathematical Challenge" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Van Cleve (James) - Minimal Truth Is Realist Truth" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Van Cleve (James) - The Moon and Sixpence: a Defense of Mereological Universalism" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Van Fraassen (Bas) - The Scientific Image" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Van Inwagen (Peter) - Fiction and Metaphysics" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Vihvelin (Kadri) - Compatibilism, Incompatibilism, and Impossibilism" (Write, 0.75 hours)
- "Warren (James) - Epicureans and the Present Past" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Wearing (Deborah) - Forever Today - A Memoir of Love and Amnesia" (Read, 0.75 hours)
- "Weiss (Bernhard) - Anti-Realism, Truth-Value Links and Tensed Truth Predicates" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Wheeler (Tim Allan) - AlphaGo Zero - How and Why it Works" (Read / Write, 0.75 hours)
- "Wiggins (David) - Continuants: Their Activity, Their Being, and Their Identity: Introduction" (Read, 0.5 hours)
- "Wiggins (David) - Identity, Individuation, and Substance" (Read / Write, 1 hour)
- "Wiggins (David) - The Concern to Survive" (Write, 1.5 hours)
- "Williams (Neil Edward) - The ungrounded argument is unfounded: a response to Mumford" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Williamson (Timothy) - Existence and Contingency" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Williamson (Timothy) - The Necessity and Determinacy of Distinctness" (Write, 1 hour)
- "Williamson (Timothy) - Unreflective Realism" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Woodward (Richard) - Why Modal Fictionalism Is Not Self-Defeating" (Write, 0.75 hours)
- "Woodward (Sarah) - Machine Learning" (Read / Write, 1.25 hours)
- "Wright (Crispin) - Précis of Truth and Objectivity" (Read / Write, 0.75 hours)
- "Wright (Crispin) - Response to Commentators" (Write, 1.25 hours)
- "Yablo (Stephen) - What ‘X Does Not Exist’ Says About We Who Do Exist" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Zimmerman (Dean) - The Privileged Present: Defending an 'A-Theory' of Time" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- Thesis - Discussions (Total Hours = 1.25)
- Thesis - Lectures
- Thesis - Research Repositioning
- Thesis - Seminars (Total Hours = 4.75)
- Thesis - Seminars (Writing)
Thesis Background (Total Hours = 25.75)
- Thesis Background - Reading / Writing (Total Hours = 19.25)
- "Amis (Kingsley), Lodge (David) - Lucky Jim" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Cambridge - CAM (Cambridge Alumni Magazine)" (Read, 0.75 hours)
- "Conolly (Oliver) - Pleasure and Pain in Literature" (Read / Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Conolly (Oliver) & Haydar (Bashar) - Literature, Knowledge, and Value" (Read / Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Conolly (Oliver) & Haydar (Bashar) - Literature, Politics, and Character" (Read / Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Conolly (Oliver) & Haydar (Bashar) - The Case Against Faction" (Read / Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Conolly (Oliver) & Haydar (Bashar) - The Good, the Bad and the Funny" (Write, 1 hour)
- "Hale (Sheila) - Titian: His Life and the Golden Age of Venice" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Interaction - Philos-List" (Read, 6 hours)
- "Orwell (George), Davison (Peter), Taylor (D.J.), Ed. - Nineteen Eighty-Four: The Annotated Edition" (Read / Write, 4 hours)
- "Rosling (Hans) - Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World – and Why Things Are Better Than You Think" (Read, 4 hours)
- "Thucydides, Crawley (Richard), Warrington (John) - The History of the Peloponnesian War" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- Thesis Background - Status (Total Hours = 6.5)
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 reinstated the plan to 25 hours / week10.
- So, 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.
- Rework the structure so that Level-1 or -2 print produces the thesis with the correct reading-list.
- Continually review the Note describing my Current Beliefs14 on the topic of Personal Identity.
- Complete a full review and update of the Notes I’ve created on Personal Identity, focusing on those directly referenced by my Current Beliefs15.
- Make progress on specific Chapters of my Thesis, using the materials below →
- Chapter 216 (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 517 (Persistence and Time). Focussing on:-
- "Botros (Sophie) - Truth, Time and History: A Philosophical Enquiry",
- "Haslanger (Sally) & Kurtz (Roxanne), Eds. - Persistence : Contemporary Readings",
- "Miller (Kristie) - Issues in Theoretical Diversity: Persistence, Composition, and Time",
- "Orwell (George), Davison (Peter), Taylor (D.J.), Ed. - Nineteen Eighty-Four: The Annotated Edition",
- "Rovelli (Carlo) - The Order of Time",
- "Sider (Ted), Hawthorne (John) & Zimmerman (Dean), Eds. - Contemporary Debates in Metaphysics",
- "Skow (Bradford) - Objective Becoming",
- "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 618 (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 719 (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 1020 (Thought Experiments):-
- Investigate Transhumanism21. 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'",
- Review "Harari (Yuval Noah) - Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow", especially Chapter 8.
- Read & review "Fry (Hannah) - Hello World: How to be Human in the Age of the Machine".
- Chapter 1122 (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",
→ "Corcoran (Kevin) - Dualism, Materialism and the Problem of Post Mortem Survival", and
→ "Badham (Paul) - Christian Beliefs About Life After Death".
- Write a file-note on "Barua (Ankur) - Revisiting the Rationality of Reincarnation-Talk".
- As background tasks:-
- Ensure all items in:-
→ "Various - Papers on Desktop", and
→ "Various - Papers in Desk Drawer"
are either addressed or re-filed.
- Convert old PDF-précis, Etc23 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"
- "Rosling (Hans) - Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World – and Why Things Are Better Than You Think" (Note24)
- "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 reviewing25 papers issued by Aeon,
- Attend Oliver Black’s Salon26(s),
- Keep up with the Journals via JSTOR & Cambridge Core27.
- Keep up with the philosophical world by periodic reviews of "Interaction - Philos-List".
Summary of Progress to Date
This was hived off to a separate Note28 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. I intend to attempt this in the coming quarter.
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 am eligible for my State Pension. This may not be much to live on – but it is a quite generous supplement which would make a significant contribution towards the fees and expenses, which prior thereto I couldn’t afford.
- Unfortunately, my state pension (and Julie’s, for that matter) has been more than gobbled up by payments on the mortgage I’ve managed to obtain for Coxes Farm. We’ll be repaying that until 2031, by which time I’ll be 77. Maybe litigation against a negligent surveyor will liberate some cash.
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 24:
- Read the Appendices, and extract the Chapter Summaries as learning-points.
Footnote 25:
- 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 26:
Live Version of this Archived Note
Table of 12 Earlier Versions of this Note (of 71)
Table of 12 Later Versions of this Note (of 28)
| This version updated |
Reference for this Topic |
Parent Topic |
| 06/01/2019 23:36:58 |
518 (Status: Personal Identity (2018 - December)) |
Status: Summary (2026 - March) |
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- Blue: Text by me; © Theo Todman, 2026