- This pseudo-Paper is intended as the mechanism to record time spent on the Note 'Future Great Pain Test1' during my Thesis research, as from 2011.
- For the actual time recorded, click on "Paper Statistics" above.
Write-up2 (as at 25/02/2018 23:36:58): Future Great Pain Test
Plug Note3- This is a test invented by Bernard Williams in "Williams (Bernard) - The Self and the Future" as a means of teasing out whether or not we really think we will be some future individual. It is cashed out in terms of the prospect of “being mercilessly tortured in the morning”.
- If we think that unfortunate individual will be us, our attitude will be qualitatively different to if we think it will be someone else (though maybe there are exceptions – mothers and their children, maybe – but even there, it may depend on what is to happen – reference Winston Smith and the rats in Room 101 in 1984 - Wikipedia: Room 101).
- In my view, this is important when alloyed to the FPP4 in rebuffing Parfit5’s view that identity doesn’t matter6 in survival.
- The actual terminology seems to be due to Peter Unger.
- Works on this topic that I’ve actually read7, include8 the following:-
- "Unger (Peter) - Investigating Our Beliefs About Ourselves", Unger9
- "Unger (Peter) - The Survival of the Sentient", Unger
- "Williams (Bernard) - The Makropulos Case: Reflections on the Tedium of Immortality", Williams
- "Williams (Bernard) - The Self and the Future", Williams
→ "Funkhouser (Eric) - Notes on Williams, 'The Self and the Future'", Funkhouser
- A reading list (where not covered elsewhere) might start with:-
- "Cerullo (Michael A.) - Uploading and Branching Identity", Cerullo
- "Shoemaker (Sydney) - Thinking Animals Without Animalism", Shoemaker
- "Zimmerman (Dean) - Does God Know Our First-Person Perspectives?", Zimmerman10
- This is mostly a place-holder11.
In-Page Footnotes
Footnote 2: - This is the write-up as it was when this Abstract was last output, with text as at the timestamp indicated (25/02/2018 23:36:58).
- Link to Latest Write-Up Note.
Footnote 3: - A number of my philosophical Notes are “promissory notes” currently only listing the books and papers (if any) I possess on the topic concerned.
- I’ve decided to add some text – whether by way of motivation, or something more substantive – for all these identified topics related to my Thesis.
- As I want to do this fairly quickly, the text may be confused or show surprising ignorance.
- The reader (if such exists) will have to bear with me, and display the principle of charity while this footnote exists.
Footnote 7: - Frequently I’ll have made copious marginal annotations, and sometimes have written up a review-note.
- In the former case, I intend to transfer the annotations into electronic form as soon as I can find the time.
- In the latter case, I will have remarked on the fact against the citation, and will integrate the comments into this Note in due course.
- My intention is to incorporate into these Notes comments on material I’ve already read rather than engage with unread material at this stage.
Footnote 8: - I may have read others in between updates of this Note – in which case they will be marked as such in the “References and Reading List” below.
- Papers or Books partially read have a rough %age based on the time spent versus the time expected.
Footnote 9: See Section 10.
Footnote 10: Maybe …
Text Colour Conventions (see disclaimer)
- Blue: Text by me; © Theo Todman, 2019