Theo Todman's Web Page - Notes Pages

Personal Identity

Matter

(Text as at 06/07/2023 00:43:12)

Plug Note¹

• Thesis Text:
  1. “Matter” works fine as a contrast to “mind²”, even though relativistic Mass/Energy is preferred in physics.
  2. Also, “physicalism³” is preferred to “materialism” as the contrast to dualism⁴ (or idealism).
  3. The persistence conditions⁵ of “masses of matter” are usually different to those of the things that matter constitutes⁶, or so it is said (and sometimes denied).
  4. For example, in the (alleged) “corpse⁷” problem for animalism⁸, the corpse is said to be distinct from the animal⁹ for the above reason – that corpses are masses of matter to have different persistence conditions to the animals they instantaneously constitute. So, where does the corpse come from? Has it always existed co-located with the animal? Do we then end up with a constitution account of animalism¹⁰, whereby – in contrast to the CV¹¹ of Persons – it is the animal¹² – rather than the person¹³ – that is constituted by the body¹⁴? This will be considered in later Chapters.

• ---

  Further Remarks:
  1. I haven’t tried providing a page of Links¹⁵ to this Note on account of the ambiguity of the word “matter” (zillions of references to “what matters” and the like would appear). So, all I’ve done is queried my papers database for items with “matter” in the title and selected the relevant ones (not even all those with “matter” in the relevant sense), which should be more than enough for such a peripheral topic.

References

• Relevant Works cited above: No items to list.
• Works on this topic that I’ve actually read¹⁶, include the following:-
  • Aeon:
    1. "Frank (Adam) - Minding matter", 2017, Annotations, No Abstract, External Link, Internal PDF Link
  • General:
    1. "Ayers (Michael R.) - Locke on 'Masses of Matter'", 1991, Annotations
    2. "Fine (Kit) - The Non-Identity of a Material Thing and Its Matter", 2003, Write-Up Note¹⁷, Annotations, Internal PDF Link
    3. "Hirsch (Eli) - Matter, Causality, and Stereotypes of Identity", 1982
    4. "Hirsch (Eli) - The Persistence of Matter", 1982
    5. "Rosenberg (Jay) - Bodies, Corpses, and Chunks of Matter: A Reply to Carter", 1984, Annotations, Internal PDF Link
• A further reading list might start with:-
  • General:
    1. "Butterfield (Jeremy) - On the Persistence of Homogeneous Matter", 2004-5, External Link, Internal PDF Link, Footnote₁₈
    2. "Chappell (Vere) - Locke on the Ontology of Matter, Living Things and Persons", 1990
    3. "Chappell (Vere) - Matter", 1973, No Abstract, Internal PDF Link
    4. "Cooper (John M.) - Chappell and Aristotle on Matter", 1973, No Abstract, Internal PDF Link
    5. "Dancy (Russell) - Matter: Aristotle and Chappell", 1973, No Abstract, Internal PDF Link
    6. "Fales (Evan) - Essentialism and the elementary constituents of matter", 1986
    7. "Grayling (Anthony) - Esse est Percipi: Against Matter", 1985
    8. "Heller (Mark) - Preface: The Ontology of Physical Objects - Four-Dimensional Hunks of Matter", 1990, Read = 117%
    9. "Lowe (E.J.) - Matter and Form", 2001
    10. "Olson (Eric) - Objects and Their Matter", 2012, External Link, Internal PDF Link, Read = 19%
    11. "Parker (Wendy) - Does Matter Really Matter? Computer Simulations, Experiments, and Materiality", 2008?, Internal PDF Link
    12. "Robinson (Denis) - Matter, Motion and Humean Supervenience", 1989, Internal PDF Link
    13. "Robinson (Denis) - Re-Identifying Matter", 1982, Internal PDF Link
    14. "Russell (Bertrand) - The Ultimate Constituents of Matter", 1976, No Abstract, Internal PDF Link
    15. "Ward (Keith) - More Than Matter: Is Matter All We Really Are?", 2010, Read = 3%
    16. "White (Nicholas) - Identity, modal individuation, and matter in Aristotle", 1986, No Abstract
• For further papers held on-line of potential interest, follow this Link¹⁹. Total papers = 1.

  ---

• For a list of Works that have been considered, but have missed the cut for inclusion in this Section of my Thesis, see the following:-
  1. Read: No items to list.
  2. Further Reading: No items to list.
• This is mostly a place-holder²⁰.

---

In-Page Footnotes:

Footnote 18:

• The three papers by Butterfield are very specialised, and this one is very long, and may be left to one side for now.

---

Table of the Previous 8 Versions of this Note:

Date	Length	Title
20/09/2022 11:24:00	3180	Matter
01/05/2022 18:20:10	2799	Matter
15/02/2021 13:40:48	2564	Matter
19/01/2020 23:41:17	1905	Matter
14/07/2019 18:05:46	546	Matter
11/03/2018 20:19:41	1846	Matter
18/12/2010 19:58:05	324	Matter
26/11/2007 23:25:26	312	Matter

---

Note last updated	Reading List for this Topic	Parent Topic
06/07/2023 00:43:12	Matter	Physical Continuity

---

Summary of Notes Referenced by This Note

Animalism	Animalism - Objections	Animals	Awaiting Attention (Personal Identity)	Body
Constitution	Constitution View	Corpses	Dualism	Fine - The Non-Identity of a Material Thing and Its Matter
Mind	Note Links Explanation	Persistence Criteria	Person	Physicalism
PID Note, Book & Paper Usage	Plug Note Apologia	Works Read - Explanation

To access information, click on one of the links in the table above.

---

Summary of Notes Citing This Note

Aeon Papers	Artifacts	Baker - Persons in the Material World	Christian Materialism	Corpses, 2
Criteria of Identity	Dracula	Olson - What Are We? Animals	Organisms	Physicalism
PID Note, Book & Paper Usage, 2, 3, 4, 5	Resurrection	Thesis - Chapter 04 (Basic Metaphysical Issues), 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8	Thesis - Chapter 06 (Animalism and Arguments for It)	Thesis - Chapter 07 (The Constitution View and Arguments for It)
Thesis - Chapter 10 (Thought Experiments)	Thesis - Chapter 11 (Resurrection), 2, 3	Thesis - Personal Identity, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11	Website Generator Documentation - Functors, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

To access information, click on one of the links in the table above.

---

Authors, Books & Papers Citing this Note

Author	Title	Medium	Extra Links	Read?
Baker (Lynne Rudder)	Persons in the Material World	Paper		Yes
Goff (Philip)	Panpsychism is crazy, but it’s also most probably true	Paper		Yes
Hains (Brigid) & Hains (Paul)	Aeon: 2019+	Paper		Yes
Olson (Eric)	What Are We? Animals	Paper		Yes
Thompson (Jon W.)	Individuation, Identity, and Resurrection in Thomas Jackson and John Locke	Paper	2	Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Artifacts	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Chapter 04 (Basic Metaphysical Issues)	Paper	2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8	Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Chapter 06 (Animalism and Arguments for It)	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Chapter 07 (The Constitution View and Arguments for It)	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Chapter 10 (Thought Experiments)	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Chapter 11 (Resurrection)	Paper	2, 3	Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Christian Materialism	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Corpses	Paper	2	Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Criteria of Identity	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Dracula	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Organisms	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Personal Identity	Paper	2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11	Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Physicalism	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Resurrection	Paper		Yes

---

References & Reading List

Author	Title	Medium	Source	Read?
Ayers (Michael R.)	Locke (Vol 2 - Ontology)	Book - By Subtopic (via Paper By Subtopic)	Ayers (Michael R.) - Locke (Vol 2 - Ontology)	26%
Ayers (Michael R.)	Locke on 'Masses of Matter'	Paper - By Subtopic	Ayers - Locke (Vol. 2 - Ontology), 1991, Chapter 18, pp. 207-215	Yes
Butterfield (Jeremy)	On the Persistence of Homogeneous Matter	Paper - Cited	Website, 2004-5	No
Callender (Craig)	Humean supervenience and rotating homogeneous matter	Paper - By Subtopic	Mind, Volume 110, Number 437, 1 January 2001, pp. 25-44(20)	No
Chappell (Vere)	Locke on the Ontology of Matter, Living Things and Persons	Paper - By Subtopic	Philosophical Studies 60 (1990), pp. 19-32	No
Chappell (Vere)	Matter	Paper - By Subtopic	Journal of Philosophy 70, No. 19, Nov. 8, 1973, pp. 679-696	No
Cooper (John M.)	Chappell and Aristotle on Matter	Paper - By Subtopic	Journal of Philosophy 70, No. 19, Nov. 8, 1973, pp. 696-698	No
Dancy (Russell)	Matter: Aristotle and Chappell	Paper - By Subtopic	Journal of Philosophy 70, No. 19, Nov. 8, 1973, pp. 698-699	No
Demopoulos (William) & Friedman (Michael)	Bertrand Russell's The Analysis of Matter: Its Historical Context and Contemporary Interest	Paper - By Subtopic	Philosophy of Science , Dec., 1985, Vol. 52, No. 4 (Dec., 1985), pp. 621-639	11%
Fales (Evan)	Essentialism and the elementary constituents of matter	Paper - By Subtopic	Midwest Studies in Philosophy (Vol XI) - Studies in Essentialism, 1986, pp. 391-402	No
Frank (Adam)	Minding matter	Paper - Cited	Aeon, 13 March, 2017	Yes
French (Peter), Uehling (Theodore) & Wettstein (Howard)	Midwest Studies in Philosophy (Vol XI) - Studies in Essentialism	Book - By Subtopic (via Paper By Subtopic)	French (Peter), Uehling (Theodore) & Wettstein (Howard) - Midwest Studies in Philosophy (Vol XI) - Studies in Essentialism	No
Goff (Philip)	Panpsychism is crazy, but it’s also most probably true	Paper - Referencing	Aeon, 01 March, 2017	Yes
Grayling (Anthony)	Berkeley: The Central Arguments	Book - By Subtopic (via Paper By Subtopic)	Grayling (Anthony) - Berkeley: The Central Arguments	No
Grayling (Anthony)	Esse est Percipi: Against Matter	Paper - By Subtopic	Grayling - Berkeley: The Central Arguments, 1985, Chapter 2	No
Hains (Brigid) & Hains (Paul)	Aeon: C-F	Book - Cited (via Paper Cited)	Bibliographical details to be supplied	51%
Hirsch (Eli)	Matter, Causality, and Stereotypes of Identity	Paper - By Subtopic	Hirsch - The Concept of Identity, 1982, Chapter 7	Yes
Hirsch (Eli)	The Concept of Identity	Book - By Subtopic (via Paper By Subtopic)	Hirsch (Eli) - The Concept of Identity	Yes
Hirsch (Eli)	The Persistence of Matter	Paper - By Subtopic	Hirsch - The Concept of Identity, 1982, Chapter 4	Yes
Lowe (E.J.)	Matter and Form	Paper - By Subtopic	Lowe - The Possibility of Metaphysics, 2001, Chapter 9	No
Lowe (E.J.)	The Possibility of Metaphysics: Substance, Identity and Time	Book - By Subtopic (via Paper By Subtopic)	Lowe (E.J.) - The Possibility of Metaphysics: Substance, Identity and Time	No
Olson (Eric)	Objects and Their Matter	Paper - By Subtopic	Olson's Website; To appear in R. Garcia, Ed., Substance, Philosophia Verlag.	19%
Olson (Eric)	Papers on Identity Boxes: Vol 13 (Olson)	Book - By Subtopic (via Paper By Subtopic)	Olson (Eric) - Papers on Identity Boxes: Vol 13 (Olson)	16%
Olson (Eric)	What are We? A Study of Personal Ontology	Book - Referencing (via Paper Referencing)	Bibliographical details to be supplied	Yes
Olson (Eric)	What Are We? Animals	Paper - Referencing	What Are We? A Study in Personal Ontology, Chapter 2 (November 2007: Oxford University Press.)	Yes
Robinson (Denis)	Re-Identifying Matter	Paper - By Subtopic	Philosophical Review, Vol. 91, No. 3, Jul., 1982, pp. 317-341	No
Rosenberg (Jay)	Bodies, Corpses, and Chunks of Matter: A Reply to Carter	Paper - By Subtopic	Mind, 1984, 419-422	Yes
Russell (Bertrand)	A Free Man's Worship and other essays	Book - By Subtopic (via Paper By Subtopic)	Russell (Bertrand) - A Free Man's Worship and other essays	1%
Russell (Bertrand)	The Ultimate Constituents of Matter	Paper - By Subtopic	Russell - A Free Man's Worship	No
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Matter	Paper - By Subtopic		Yes

---

Text Colour Conventions

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

---

© Theo Todman, June 2007 - March 2026.	Please address any comments on this page to theo@theotodman.com.	File output: 02/03/2026 07:03:06 Website Maintenance Dashboard
Return to Top of this Page	Return to Theo Todman's Philosophy Page	Return to Theo Todman's Home Page

---