Theo Todman's Web Page - Paper Abstracts

Author’s Abstract

1. The main claims of "Olson (Eric) - The Human Animal - Personal Identity Without Psychology" were that we are animals, and that our persistence therefore consists not in psychological continuity¹ but in the continuation of our biological lives.
2. I said further that a human life was possible only if there was a functioning brainstem. Rina Tzinman and Alan Shewmon have challenged this further claim.
3. I concede that it is probably false, but argue that this does not affect the main claims. It may, however, give rise to a new sort of fission case.