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Personal Identity

Animalists

(Text as at 28/09/2022 10:24:58)

1. Introduction
   • This Note is intended to list those philosophers who might be categorised as animalists, together with their major works on the topic.
   • On reflection, the latter idea might be a mistake, as these works will be covered under the Notes on:-
     → Animalism¹
     → Animalism – Objections²
   • We’ll see.
2. Animalists
   • Thesis Text:
     1. Who is an animalist depends on who you ask. Some are self-proclaimed, and others are claimed to be so by others.
     2. The following would definitely seem to be animalists:-
        1. Michael R. Ayers,
        2. Andrew M. Bailey,
        3. Stephan Blatti,
        4. William Carter,
        5. David Hershenov,
        6. David Mackie,
        7. Eric Olson,
        8. Paul Snowdon,
        9. Peter Van Inwagen, and₃
        10. Richard Wollheim.
     3. In addition,
        1. David Wiggins, and
        2. Bernard Williams
        are sometimes claimed (I think by Stephan Blatti).
     4. Olson in "Olson (Eric) - What are We? A Study of Personal Ontology" has Carter, Ayers, van Inwagen and Snowdon; but also:-
        1. Joshua Hoffman and Gary Rosenkrantz, and
        2. Trenton Merricks.
     5. However, in "Olson (Eric) - Psychology and Personal Identity", Olson claims that – contrary to appearances – David Wiggins and Jay Rosenberg are supporters of the PV⁴.
     6. "Bailey (Andrew M.) - The Elimination Argument" agrees that Merricks and van Inwagen are animalists.
     7. "Johansson (Jens) - What is Animalism?" has Ayers, Carter, Mackie, Merricks, Olson, Snowdon, Van Inwagen, and Wiggins, but also:-
        
        1. John McDowell, and
        2. Derek Parfit.
     8. It is likely that many atheist or agnostic philosophers who don’t specifically treat of personal identity are animalists. "Quinn (Philip L.) - Review of Antony Flew's 'The Logic of Mortality'" seems to describe Antony Flew as such, though Quinn doesn’t use the term “animalist”.
     9. "Bourget (David) & Chalmers (David) - The PhilPapers Surveys: What Do Philosophers Believe?" has a question on Personal Identity, and it seems that only just under 17% of faculty at elite philosophy departments are even inclined towards animalism, with just under 6% being convinced. No recognised Animalist appears to have responded to the survey (or at least allowed their opinions to be published). I did, however, spot that my former supervisor – Jennifer Hornsby – claimed to be an animalist, though I don’t think she’s written anything on the subject.
3. Works
   • For a page of Links⁵ to this Note, Click here.
   • Eric Olson has his own Note⁶, wherein I list his important works on Animalism
   • The key works (in my possession) by the major and alleged animalists that I’ve actually read⁷, include the following₈:-
     • Michael R. Ayers:
       1. "Ayers (Michael R.) - Neo-Lockean and Anti-Lockean Theories of Personal Identity in Analytic Philosophy", 1991, Annotations
     • Stephan Blatti:
       1. "Blatti (Stephan) - Animalism (Continuum)", 2006, Annotations, External Link, Internal PDF Link
       2. "Blatti (Stephan) - Animalism and its Implications", 2005, Annotations, Internal PDF Link
       3. "Blatti (Stephan) - Animalism and Personal Identity", 2007, Annotations, External Link, Internal PDF Link
       4. "Blatti (Stephan) - Animalism Unburdened", 2005, Annotations, External Link, Internal PDF Link
       5. "Blatti (Stephan) - Animalism, Dicephalus, and Borderline Cases", 2007, Annotations, External Link, Internal PDF Link
     • William Carter:
       1. "Carter (William) - Death and Bodily Transfiguration", 1984, Annotations, Internal PDF Link
       2. "Carter (William) - Do Zygotes Become People?", 1982, Annotations, Internal PDF Link
       3. "Carter (William) - Our Bodies, Our Selves", 1988, Annotations, Internal PDF Link
       4. "Carter (William) - Will I Be a Dead Person?", 1999, Annotations, Internal PDF Link
     • David Hershenov:
       1. "Hershenov (David) - Countering the Appeal of the Psychological Approach to Personal Identity", 2004, Annotations, External Link, Internal PDF Link
       2. "Hershenov (David) - Do Dead Bodies Pose a Problem for Biological Approaches to Personal Identity", 2005, Annotations, External Link, Internal PDF Link
     • David Mackie:
       1. "Mackie (David) - Animalism Versus Lockeanism: No Contest", 1999, Annotations, Internal PDF Link
       2. "Mackie (David) - Going Topless", 1998, Annotations, Internal PDF Link
       3. "Mackie (David) - Personal Identity and Dead People", 1999, Annotations, Internal PDF Link
     • John McDowell:
       1. "McDowell (John) - Reductionism and the First Person", 1997, Annotations
     • Paul Snowdon:
       1. "Snowdon (Paul) - Personal Identity (Lectures 1 - 4)", 2005?, Annotations, Internal PDF Link
       2. "Snowdon (Paul) - Personal Identity and Brain Transplants", 1991, Annotations
       3. "Snowdon (Paul) - Persons and Personal Identity", 1996, Annotations
       4. "Snowdon (Paul) - Persons, Animals, and Bodies", 1995, Annotations
       5. "Snowdon (Paul) - Persons, Animals, and Ourselves", 1990, Annotations
       6. "Snowdon (Paul) - Some Objections to Animalism", 2003
     • Peter Van Inwagen:
       1. "Van Inwagen (Peter) - Materialism and the Psychological-continuity Account of Personal Identity", 1994, Internal PDF Link, Footnote₉
     • David Wiggins:
       1. "Wiggins (David) - Locke, Butler and the Stream of Consciousness: And Men as Natural Kind", 1976, Internal PDF Link
       2. "Wiggins (David) - On Being in the Same Place at the Same Time", 1968, Annotations, External Link, Internal PDF Link
       3. "Wiggins (David) - Reply to Snowdon (Persons and Personal Identity)", 1996, No Abstract
       4. "Wiggins (David) - The Concern to Survive", 1987, Annotations
       5. "Wiggins (David) - The Person as Object of Science, as Subject of Experience, and as Locus of Value", 1987, Annotations
     • Bernard Williams:
       1. "Williams (Bernard) - Are Persons Bodies?", 1970, Annotations, Internal PDF Link
       2. "Williams (Bernard) - Bodily Continuity and Personal Identity", 1960, Annotations, Internal PDF Link
       3. "Williams (Bernard) - Persons, Character and Morality", 1976
       4. "Williams (Bernard) - The Self and the Future", 1999, Write-Up Note¹⁰, Annotations, Internal PDF Link
     • Richard Wollheim:
       1. "Wollheim (Richard) - Living", 1984, Annotations, No Abstract
     • General:
       1. "Wilson (Jack) - Biological Individuality - The identity and Persistence of Living Entities", 1999, Book
   • A further reading list might start with:-
     • Andrew M. Bailey:
       1. "Bailey (Andrew M.) - The Elimination Argument", 2014, External Link, Internal PDF Link, Read = 67%
     • Stephan Blatti:
       1. "Blatti (Stephan) - A New Argument for Animalism", 2012, External Link, Internal PDF Link, Read = 67%
     • William Carter:
       1. "Carter (William) - Once and Future Persons", 1980, Internal PDF Link, Read = 50%
       2. "Carter (William) - Personal Identity", 1990
       3. "Carter (William) - Plantinga on Disembodied Existence", 1972, Internal PDF Link
     • David Hershenov:
       1. "Hershenov (David) - Olson's Embryo Problem", 2002, External Link, Internal PDF Link
       2. "Hershenov (David) - The Death of a Person", 2006, External Link, Internal PDF Link
       3. "Hershenov (David) - The Problematic Role of ‘Irreversibility’ in the Definition of Death", 2003, External Link, Internal PDF Link
       4. "Hershenov (David) - Van Inwagen, Zimmerman, and the Materialist Conception of Resurrection", 2002, External Link, Internal PDF Link, Read = 11%
     • Joshua Hoffman & Gary Rosenkrantz:
       1. "Hoffman (Joshua) & Rosenkrantz (Gary) - On the Unity of the Parts of Organisms", 1997, Footnote₁₁
       2. "Hoffman (Joshua) & Rosenkrantz (Gary) - Substance: Its Nature and Existence", 1997, Book
     • Trenton Merricks:
       1. "Merricks (Trenton) - How to Live Forever Without Saving Your Soul: Physicalism and Immortality", 2001
       2. "Merricks (Trenton) - Objects and Persons", 2001, Book, Read = 7%
     • Peter Van Inwagen:
       1. "Van Inwagen (Peter) - Material Beings", 1995, Book, Read = 27%
     • David Wiggins:
       1. "Wiggins (David) - Identity & Spatio-temporal Continuity", 1967, Book, Read = 5%
       2. "Wiggins (David) - Personal Identity", 2001, Read = 43%
       3. "Wiggins (David) - Personal Identity (S&S)", 1980
       4. "Wiggins (David) - Reply To Shoemaker", 2004, Internal PDF Link
       5. "Wiggins (David) - Reply To Shoemaker's Reply", 2004, Internal PDF Link
       6. "Wiggins (David) - Sameness and Substance", 1980, Book, Read = 11%
       7. "Wiggins (David) - Sameness and Substance Renewed", 2001, Book, Read = 16%
     • Bernard Williams:
       1. "Williams (Bernard) - Identity and Identities", 1995, Read = 8%
       2. "Williams (Bernard) - Personal Identity and Individuation", 1957, Internal PDF Link, Read = 33%

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In-Page Footnotes:

Footnote 3:

1. The evidence for this – by way of self-confession – is in "Van Inwagen (Peter) - Materialism and the Psychological-continuity Account of Personal Identity".

Footnote 8:

• The full list of their works in my possession can be found by following the hyperlink from their name.

Footnote 9:

• The burden of this paper is to reject body transfer, but PVI claims to be an animalist therein.

Footnote 11:

• This, from the book below, looks particularly useful.

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Table of the Previous 10 Versions of this Note:

Date	Length	Title
06/05/2022 12:50:24	6174	Animalists
01/10/2021 13:17:46	5882	Animalists
12/02/2021 15:44:38	4844	Animalists
06/12/2019 23:09:36	4147	Animalists
28/04/2018 00:07:12	4767	Animalists
04/04/2015 00:17:17	3356	Animalists
26/03/2014 19:09:07	2647	Animalists
18/08/2009 20:39:50	1669	Animalists
26/11/2007 23:25:26	523	Animalists
12/08/2007 10:17:46	536	Animalists

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Note last updated	Reading List for this Topic	Parent Topic
28/09/2022 10:24:58	None available	Animalism

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Summary of Notes Referenced by This Note

Animalism	Animalism - Objections	Note Links Explanation	Olson	Psychological View
Williams - The Self and the Future	Works Read - Explanation

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

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Summary of Notes Citing This Note

Animalism	Animals	Blackburn - Has Kant Refuted Parfit?	Bodily Continuity	Brain Criterion
Essentialism	Human Animals	Human Beings	Johnston - Human Beings	Noonan - Persons and Bodies - Response
Olson	PID Note, Book & Paper Usage, 2, 3, 4	Psychological Continuity	Snowdon - The Self and Personal Identity	Taking Persons Seriously
Thesis - Chapter 02 (What are We?), 2, 3	Thesis - Chapter 03 (What is a Person?)	Thesis - Chapter 06 (Animalism and Arguments for It), 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9	Thesis - Chapter 07 (The Constitution View and Arguments for It)	Thesis - Chapter 10 (Thought Experiments)
Thesis - Current Stance	Transplants	Website - Progress to Date (2022 - November), 2	Website Generator Documentation - Functors, 2, 3, 4	Wiggins

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

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Authors, Books & Papers Citing this Note

Author	Title	Medium	Extra Links	Read?
Bailey (Andrew M.)	N/A	Author
Belshaw (Christopher)	Review of Paul Snowdon's 'Persons, Animals, Ourselves'	Paper		Yes
Berglund (Stefan)	Human and Personal Identity: Summary & Bibliography	Paper
Blackburn (Simon)	Has Kant Refuted Parfit?	Paper
Blatti (Stephan)	Animalism (Continuum)	Paper		Yes
Blatti (Stephan)	Headhunters	Paper	2
Blatti (Stephan)	Review of 'The Rise and Fall of Soul and Self', by Raymond Martin and John Barresi	Paper	2	Yes
Blatti (Stephan)	We Are Animals	Paper		Yes
Blatti (Stephan) & Snowdon (Paul), Eds.	Animalism: Introduction	Paper	2
Blatti (Stephan), Ed.	The Lives of Human Animals	Paper	2	Yes
Dainton (Barry)	Self: Philosophy In Transit: Prologue	Paper		Yes
Dennett (Daniel)	Where Am I?	Paper	2	Yes
Garrett (Brian)	The Story of I: Some Comments on L.R.Baker 'Persons & Bodies'	Paper		Yes
Gasser (Georg)	Personal Identity and Resurrection: Introduction	Paper		Yes
Hershenov (David)	N/A	Author	2
Hershenov (David)	Are There Too Many Hylomorphic Individuals Thinking about this Life and the Next?	Paper	2
Hershenov (David)	Who Doesn't Have a Problem of Too Many Thinkers?	Paper	2
Johansson (Jens)	Animal Ethics	Paper
Johansson (Jens)	What is Animalism?	Paper		Yes
Johnston (Mark)	Human Beings	Paper		Yes
Johnston (Mark)	Is Heaven a Place We Can Get To?	Paper
Johnston (Mark)	Remnant Persons: Animalism's Undoing	Paper
Kazez (Jean)	The Philosophical Parent: Asking the Hard Questions About Having and Raising Children	Paper		Yes
Kingma (Elselijn)	Were You Part of Your Mother?	Paper		Yes
Liao (S. Matthew)	The Organism View Defended	Paper		Yes
Lockwood (Michael)	When Does a Life Begin?	Paper	2	Yes
Mackie (David)	Personal Identity and Dead People	Paper		Yes
Madden (Rory)	Thinking Parts	Paper	2, 3
Marshall (Richard) & Olson (Eric)	Eric T. Olson: The Philosopher with No Hands	Paper		Yes
Moran (Alexander P.)	Animalism and the Thinking Parts Problem	Paper
Noonan (Harold)	Arguments Against Animalism: Comments on L.R.Baker 'Persons & Bodies'	Paper		Yes
Olson (Eric)	Animalism and the Remnant-Person Problem	Paper	2	Yes
Olson (Eric)	Psychology and Personal Identity	Paper		Yes
Olson (Eric)	Review of P. Snowdon, Persons, Animals, Ourselves	Paper	2	Yes
Olson (Eric)	The Human Animal: Introduction	Paper	2	Yes
Olson (Eric)	The Remnant-Person Problem	Paper	2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8
Olson (Eric)	What Are We? Animals	Paper	2
Olson (Eric)	What Are We? Constitution	Paper	2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9
Olson (Eric)	What Are We? Temporal Parts	Paper
Olson (Eric)	What Are We? What Now?	Paper	2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24
Parfit (Derek)	We Are Not Human Beings	Paper	2
Petrus (Klaus), Ed.	On Human Persons	Book
Puhl (Klaus)	Review of Klaus Petrus's 'On Human Persons'	Paper
Quinn (Philip L.)	Review of Antony Flew's 'The Logic of Mortality'	Paper		Yes
Reid (Mark D.)	A Case in Which Two Persons Exist in One Animal	Paper	2, 3, 4
Shoemaker (David)	Personal Identity and Ethics - Introduction	Paper		Yes
Shoemaker (David)	Personal Identity and Immortality	Paper		Yes
Smith (Barry C.), Broks (Paul), Kennedy (A.L.) & Evans (Jules)	Audio: What Does It Mean to Be Me?	Paper		Yes
Snowdon (Paul)	Animalism and the Unity of Consciousness	Paper	2, 3
Snowdon (Paul)	Philosophy and the Mind/Body Problem	Paper		Yes
Snowdon (Paul)	The Self and Personal Identity	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Animalism	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Animals	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Bodily Continuity	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Brain Criterion	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Chapter 02 (What Are We?)	Paper	2, 3	Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Chapter 03 (What is a Person?)	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Chapter 06 (Animalism and Arguments for It)	Paper	2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9	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 - Current Position	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Essentialism	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Human Animals	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Human Beings	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Olson	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Psychological Continuity	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Taking Persons Seriously	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Transplants	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Wiggins	Paper		Yes
Tooley (Michael)	Abortion	Paper
Van Inwagen (Peter)	Dualism and Materialism: Athens and Jerusalem?	Paper		Yes
Van Inwagen (Peter)	Materialism and the Psychological-continuity Account of Personal Identity	Paper		Yes
Van Inwagen (Peter)	Plantinga’s Replacement Argument	Paper		Yes

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References & Reading List

Author	Title	Medium	Source	Read?
Ayers (Michael R.)	Locke (Vol 2 - Ontology)	Book - Cited (via Paper Cited)	Bibliographical details to be supplied	17%
Ayers (Michael R.)	Neo-Lockean and Anti-Lockean Theories of Personal Identity in Analytic Philosophy	Paper - Cited	Ayers - Locke (Vol. 2 - Ontology), 1991, Chapter 25, pp. 278-292	Yes
Bailey (Andrew M.)	The Elimination Argument	Paper - Cited	Philosophical Studies 168 (2014): 475-482	56%
Blatti (Stephan)	Animalism (Continuum)	Paper - Cited	The Continuum Encyclopedia of British Philosophy, ed. A. C. Grayling, A. Pyle, N. Goulder (Continuum, 2006), vol. 1: 108–09	Yes
Blatti (Stephan)	Animalism and its Implications	Paper - Cited	OU Website (now deleted)	Yes
Blatti (Stephan)	Animalism and Personal Identity	Paper - Cited	Encyclopedia of Human-Animal Relationships, ed. M. Bekoff (Greenwood Press, 2007), 430-33	Yes
Blatti (Stephan)	Animalism Unburdened	Paper - Cited	OU Website (now deleted)	Yes
Blatti (Stephan)	Animalism, Dicephalus, and Borderline Cases	Paper - Cited	Philosophical Psychology 20 (2007): 595–608	Yes
Bourget (David) & Chalmers (David)	The PhilPapers Surveys: What Do Philosophers Believe?	Paper - Cited	Philosophical Studies: Vol. 170, No. 3 (September 2014), pp. 465-500	Yes
Carter (William)	Death and Bodily Transfiguration	Paper - Cited	Mind, 1984, 412-418	Yes
Carter (William)	Do Zygotes Become People?	Paper - Cited	Mind, 91.361 (Jan. 1982), pp. 77-95	Yes
Hoffman (Joshua) & Rosenkrantz (Gary)	Substance: Its Nature and Existence	Book - Cited	Hoffman (Joshua) & Rosenkrantz (Gary) - Substance: Its Nature and Existence	No
Johansson (Jens)	What is Animalism?	Paper - Cited	Ratio, Volume 20, Issue 2, June 2007, pp. 194–205	Yes
Merricks (Trenton)	Objects and Persons	Book - Cited	Merricks (Trenton) - Objects and Persons	7%
Olson (Eric)	Psychology and Personal Identity	Paper - Cited	The Human Animal, September 1999, Chapter 1, pp. 7-21	Yes
Olson (Eric)	The Human Animal - Personal Identity Without Psychology	Book - Cited (via Paper Cited)	Bibliographical details to be supplied	Yes
Olson (Eric)	What are We? A Study of Personal Ontology	Book - Cited	Olson (Eric) - What are We? A Study of Personal Ontology	68%
Quinn (Philip L.)	Review of Antony Flew's 'The Logic of Mortality'	Paper - Cited	Nous, Vol. 26, No. 1, Mar., 1992, pp. 102-104	Yes
Van Inwagen (Peter)	Material Beings	Book - Cited	Van Inwagen (Peter) - Material Beings	27%
Van Inwagen (Peter)	Materialism and the Psychological-continuity Account of Personal Identity	Paper - Cited	Van Inwagen - Ontology, Identity and Modality, Part II: Identity, Chapter 9, 1997	Yes
Van Inwagen (Peter)	Ontology, Identity and Modality: Essays in metaphysics	Book - Cited (via Paper Cited)	Bibliographical details to be supplied	17%
Wiggins (David)	Identity & Spatio-temporal Continuity	Book - Cited	Wiggins (David) - Identity & Spatio-temporal Continuity	5%
Wiggins (David)	Sameness and Substance	Book - Cited	Wiggins (David) - Sameness and Substance	11%
Wiggins (David)	Sameness and Substance Renewed	Book - Cited	Wiggins (David) - Sameness and Substance Renewed	16%
Wilson (Jack)	Biological Individuality - The identity and Persistence of Living Entities	Book - Cited	Wilson (Jack) - Biological Individuality - The identity and Persistence of Living Entities	Yes

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Text Colour Conventions

1. Blue: Text by me; © Theo Todman, 2022

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