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Status Reports

Status: Personal Identity (2023 - September)

(Text as at 04/10/2023 21:59:02)

*** THIS IS NOT THE LATEST VERSION OF THIS NOTE ***


(For the live version and other versions of this Note, see the tables at the end)


Rationale for this Project


Summary of Progress during July - September 2023
  1. I spent 374.25 hours in 23Q3 on this Project, or related work (871.5 hours YTD, where for "YTD" - Year to Date - I mean the (academic) year that commenced in October 2022). That's 159.9% of the planned effort (92.9% YTD). Overall, 57.3% of my Project effort in the Quarter was directed towards this project (making 33.6% YTD) - as against 35.3% planned (34.6% YTD).
  2. The – then upcoming – King’s College Cambridge 50th Anniversary Reunion (12th August 2023) put in my head the question ‘what have I done with my life?’. One thing I’ve not done is complete my researches into Personal Identity. Nor will I ever complete a PhD without a radical change of priority. So, I decided at the end of July effectively to mothball, the important or enjoyable distractions – Bridge4, Languages5, Philosophy of Religion6 – and try to focus exclusively on my Thesis, though with increased attention in the short term to my Web Tools project insofar as it is necessary to support my philosophy.
  3. Hence, as can be seen, I exceeded my time budget by about 60%, though not enough to recover my annual budget, which was still 7% short.
  4. My immediate focus has been on a very detailed analysis of
    "Olson (Eric) - What are We? A Study of Personal Ontology",
    with some diversion into the works of Lynne Rudder Baker, namely:-
    "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - Review of 'What Are We? A Study in Personal Ontology' by Eric T. Olson", and
    "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - Materialism with a Human Face".
  5. As spin-offs from Olson I read "Anscombe (G.E.M.) - The First Person" but didn’t really get much out of it; "Ayers (Michael R.) - Locke on Living Things" was more enlightening.
  6. As a way into the latest AI controversy, I spent some considerable time on "Aeon - Video - Changeling" and spin-offs.
  7. I completed the first draft of my biography of Henry7, my late dog. I hope to add further philosophical reflection in due course.
  8. As background or holiday tasks I spent a lot of time on:-
    "Dostoyevsky (Fyodor), Magarshack (David) - The Brothers Karamazov" (at Nat’s instigation; currently paused)
    "Figes (Orlando) - The Story of Russia" (complete)
    "Somerset Maugham (W.) - Collected Short Stories: Volume 2" (now awaiting the next holiday – the end of July 2024)
  9. To control the various links within my Thesis, I’ve created and maintained a PID Note Usage8 Page, though this didn’t get much of a look in this Quarter.
  10. It’s never possible to do it justice to Aeon, when a dozen or so interesting papers turn up every week. I continue to lose the fight to restrict the top priority to 10 items. I’ve now stopped importing everything into my database, restricting myself to what is really relevant. I still need to be more strict.
  11. Progress between reports can be obtained from the relevant section of my Summary Task List9.
  12. A full list of items worked on in the quarter appears below:-
    Thesis (Total Hours = 299.25)
    1. Thesis - Reading / Writing (Total Hours = 291.25)
    2. Thesis - Research Repositioning (Total Hours = 8)
      • Admin - Thesis - Outline & Initial Research (July - Sept) - Discussions at King's (0.5 hours)
      • Admin - Thesis - Outline & Initial Research (July - Sept) - Discussions of Irish 'Hate Speech' Bill (0.75 hours)
      • Admin - Thesis - Outline & Initial Research (July - Sept) - King's Reunion Follow-up (0.75 hours)
      • "Admin - Thesis Planning+Admin (July - Sept)" (6 hours)
    Thesis Background (Total Hours = 50.25)
    1. Thesis Background - Reading / Writing (Total Hours = 46.75)
    2. Thesis Background - Books Admin
    3. Thesis Background - Status
    Thesis (Aeon) (Total Hours = 24.75)
Plans for the Near Future – Top Priority Tasks



In-Page Footnotes

Footnote 13: Footnote 19: Footnote 20: Footnote 21: Footnote 22: Footnote 24: Footnote 26:


Live Version of this Archived Note

Date Length Title
13/01/2026 13:14:53 23399 Status: Personal Identity (2025 - December)


Table of 12 Earlier Versions of this Note (of 89)

Date Length Title
06/07/2023 00:43:12 17293 Status: Personal Identity (2023 - June)
30/04/2023 01:06:14 17972 Status: Personal Identity (2023 - March)
10/01/2023 23:35:31 13323 Status: Personal Identity (2022 - December)
10/10/2022 22:32:10 14411 Status: Personal Identity (2022 - September)
03/07/2022 01:29:17 19603 Status: Personal Identity (2022 - June)
11/04/2022 00:01:26 17429 Status: Personal Identity (2022 - March)
03/01/2022 23:58:34 25490 Status: Personal Identity (2021 - December)
02/07/2021 20:32:38 17373 Status: Personal Identity (2021 - June)
03/04/2021 19:58:05 33235 Status: Personal Identity (2021 - March)
04/01/2021 19:40:48 27330 Status: Personal Identity (2020 - December)
04/10/2020 00:27:22 34087 Status: Personal Identity (2020 - September)
03/07/2020 22:09:07 34006 Status: Personal Identity (2020 - June)


Table of the 8 Later Versions of this Note

Date Length Title
30/10/2025 18:31:41 18360 Status: Personal Identity (2025 - September)
15/07/2025 10:14:53 20145 Status: Personal Identity (2025 - June)
07/04/2025 00:15:50 21863 Status: Personal Identity (2025 - March)
01/02/2025 00:28:48 20669 Status: Personal Identity (2024 - December)
10/10/2024 00:47:31 18007 Status: Personal Identity (2024 - September)
11/07/2024 23:08:10 23169 Status: Personal Identity (2024 - June)
15/04/2024 00:34:34 25699 Status: Personal Identity (2024 - March)
01/04/2024 20:08:10 20961 Status: Personal Identity (2023 - December)



This version updated Reference for this Topic Parent Topic
04/10/2023 21:59:02 518 (Status: Personal Identity (2023 - September)) Status: Summary (2025 - December)



Summary of Notes Links from this Page

Aeon Papers (06/07/23) Closest Continuer Henry PID Note, Book & Paper Usage Psychological Continuity - Forward (2)
Status: Bridge (2023 - September) Status: Languages (2023 - September) Status: Philosophy of Religion (2023 - September) Status: Summary Task List (2023: July - September) Status: Thesis Dashboard (2022: December) (2)
Theo Todman's BA Papers Thesis - Current Stance (4) Thesis - Introduction (3) Thesis - Journals  

To access information, click on one of the links in the table above (if any).




Summary of Note Links to this Page

Status: Consciousness Studies (2023 - September) Status: Priority Task List (2023 - September) Status: Summary (2023 - September), 2 Status: Summary Task List (2023: July - September) Status: Summary Task List (2023: October - December)
Status: Summary Task List (YTD: 22Q4 - 23Q3) Status: Summary Task List (YTD: 23Q4) Website - Progress to Date (2023 - September), 2    

To access information, click on one of the links in the table above (if any).




Text Colour Conventions

  1. Blue: Text by me; © Theo Todman, 2026




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