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Personal Identity

Artifacts

(Text as at 26/05/2020 21:51:50)

(For earlier versions of this Note, see the table at the end)

Plug Note¹

• My main research interest is in Personal Identity, so identifying the persistence conditions for artefacts₂ isn’t central to my concerns. However, they crop up all over the place in the Identity and Persistence literature, so it is important to have a considered view.
• Since artefacts are human inventions, they do not fall under natural kind³ concepts, and so their persistence conditions may be to some degree a matter of convention⁴. Since human beings are (at least) organisms⁵, analogies with artefacts may be moot, to say the least.
• An interesting notion – I think due to Trenton Merricks (in "Merricks (Trenton) - Objects and Persons") and others – is nihilism⁶ with respect to artefacts. This is the view that there are no statues, but only atoms arranged statuewise.
  • If this is a correct account, then this would undermine the prime support of the Constitution View⁷.
  • The reason being that statues, and the like, are prime examples and motivators of the CV, whereby you can have two things (of different sorts⁸) in the same place at the same time, one of which constitutes⁹ the other.
  • If there are no such statues, then all this falls apart.
  • Yet of course there are statues, but in what sense?
  • An idea I intend to play with (this may be Merricks’s, for all I know) is that artefacts are shared ideas (memes₁₀) projected onto the physical objects (which are indeed collections of atoms arranged X-wise, and the form of the X-wise structure is deliberately chosen to enable it to perform its function).
  • This agrees with, say, Baker’s notion that statues exist only in relation to an art-world. But they are ideas rather than things.
• See also Ship of Theseus¹¹ under this head. It is the standard conundrum concerning the persistence conditions of artefacts, which are also the clearest contenders for the existence of intermittent objects¹². Some philosophers (sensibly) claim that a bicycle can survive being disassembled and then re-assembled, with the (rash) assumption that the bicycle doesn't exist in its disassembled state. Well, my view is that the bicycle does exist in the disassembled state. I'd be miffed if someone returned my bicycle in a disassembled state, but my miffedness wouldn't be because I thought I'd not received my bike back, but because it would be a pain to re-assemble it.
• The intermittent existence of objects is relevant to the issue of resurrection¹³ for physicalists. But the artefact model isn’t appropriate here. A bike can't survive its parts being mulched up and re-manufactured. In any case, we can't logically get our original atoms back (as organisms¹⁴ exchange atoms with their environment all the time, so there's no such things as "my atoms", since any such things would (over time) be shared with other organisms).
• There’s a disagreement – it seems – between Western and Eastern traditions as to whether material continuity and connectedness¹⁵ are required for the persistence of artifacts – in particular, for buildings. Japanese Shinto temples can be rebuilt next to one another and swapped over on a 20-year cycle while remaining “the same temple” (or temple complex). It’s the form that’s important, not the matter, and it’s deemed essential to keep the matter in good condition – using traditional crafts to replace it. See "Han (Byung-Chul) - Shanzhai: Deconstruction in Chinese". This is something of a problem even in the Western tradition, as the reductio of “Trigger’s Broom” exemplifies.
• There is the claim that adopting a functional approach to personal identity is effectively treating persons as artefacts (which are defined by their functions – eg. a corkscrew – though there can be broken exemplars that can no longer perform the function). Presumably this is intended as a reductio ad absurdum of the functionalist¹⁶ account of personhood.
• Wiggins touches on the subject of persons as artefacts in "Wiggins (David) - Personal Identity" (in "Wiggins (David) - Sameness and Substance Renewed"). From a quick look, it seems to me that Wiggins is saying that if we tinker around with human beings enough (whether genetically or by heroic surgical intervention), we have effectively turned them into artefacts of our own devising, and so there is no longer a natural-kind¹⁷-constrained answer to questions of their persistence conditions¹⁸. Since Wiggins seems to equate persons¹⁹ and human beings²⁰, the thought experiments²¹ if carried out in a world would lead to persons that are artefacts. But maybe he’s saying something deeper.
• While artefacts aren’t mentioned in "Wiggins (David) - Reply to Snowdon (Persons and Personal Identity)" (in "Lovibond (Sabina) & Williams (S.G.) - Identity, Truth & Value: Essays for David Wiggins"), maybe Wiggins is talking about the same sort of thing.
• For a page of Links²² to this Note, Click here.
• Works on this topic that I’ve actually read²³ include the following:-
  1. "Carter (William) - Artifacts of Theseus: Fact and Fission", Carter
  2. "Chandler (Hugh S.) - Theseus' Clothes-Pin", Chandler
  3. "Hazlett (Allan) - Disassembly and Destruction", Hazlett
  4. "Lowenthal ( David) - Material Preservation and Its Alternatives", Lowenthal
  5. "Matthes (Erich Hatala) - Palmyra’s ruins can rebuild our relationship with history", Matthes
  6. "Olson (Eric) - Immanent Causation and Life After Death", Olson
  7. "Wiggins (David) - Reply to Snowdon (Persons and Personal Identity)", Wiggins
• A reading list (where not covered elsewhere₂₄) might start with:-
  1. "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - Artifacts", Baker
  2. "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - The Metaphysics of Malfunction", Baker
  3. "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - The Ontological Significance of Artefacts", Baker
  4. "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - The Ontology of Artifacts", Baker
  5. "Bloom (Paul) - Artifacts", Bloom
  6. "Carter (William) - Salmon on Artifact Origins and Lost Possibilities", Carter
  7. "Denkel (Arda) - Artifacts and Constituents", Denkel
  8. "Dennett (Daniel) - Artifactual Selves: a Response to Lynne Rudder Baker", Dennett
  9. "Dennett (Daniel) - The Self as a Responding - and Responsible - Artifact", Dennett
  10. "Elder (Crawford) - Artifacts and Other Copied Kinds", Elder
  11. "Han (Byung-Chul) - Shanzhai: Deconstruction in Chinese", Han
  12. "Hershenov (David) - Organisms, Artifacts, and Eliminativism", Hershenov
  13. "Hershenov (David) - Scattered Artifacts", Hershenov
  14. "Houkes (Wybo) & Vermaas (Pieter) - Actions Versus Functions: A Plea For An Alternative Metaphysics Of Artifacts", Houkes & Vermaas
      → "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - On the Twofold Nature of Artefacts: A Response to Wybo Houkes and Anthonie Meijers", Baker
      → "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - Shrinking Difference - Response to Replies", Baker
  15. "Katayama (Errol) - Aristotle on Artifacts: A Metaphysical Puzzle", Katayama
  16. "Lowe (E.J.) - On the Identity of Artifacts", Lowe
  17. "Merricks (Trenton) - Objects and Persons", Merricks … especially …
      → "Merricks (Trenton) - Explaining Eliminativism", and
      → "Merricks (Trenton) - Belief and Practice"
  18. "Puccetti (Roland) - Person-Artifacts", Puccetti
  19. "Putman (Daniel) - Natural Kinds and Human Artifacts", Putman
  20. "Richmond (Alasdair) - Time Travel, Parahistory and the Past Artefact Dilemma", Richmond
  21. "Symons (John) - The Individuality of Artifacts and Organisms", Symons
  22. "Van Inwagen (Peter) - Artifacts", Van Inwagen
  23. "Wiggins (David) - Personal Identity", Wiggins
• This is mostly a place-holder²⁵.

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In-Page Footnotes:

Footnote 2:

• Rather irritatingly, “artefact” is the British English spelling, but most papers on the topic use the American English spelling “artifact”.
• I doubt I’ve been consistent in my usage.

Footnote 10:

• There’s an extensive literature on this topic, stemming from Richard Dawkins, which I’ll not pursue here.
• There’s a claim in "Harari (Yuval Noah) - Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind" that the cohesive power of human societies and hence the rise of homo sapiens as a species is down to our shared belief in “fictions”.
• Yuval Noah Harari’s use of “fiction” is pejorative and non-standard, as he uses it for anything from religious beliefs to limited companies.
• Even those philosophers of religion who use the term “myths” for religious beliefs are keen to assert that “myth” does not men “fiction”, even though some myths are fictions as well.

Footnote 24:

• Eg. under Ship of Theseus.
• The categorised reading list is rather long, so I’ve had to be selective.

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Printable Versions:

• Follow (this link) for level 0 (with reading list), and
• Follow (this link) for level 0.

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Table of the Previous 7 Versions of this Note:

Date	Length	Title
13/05/2020 19:30:43	6072	Artifacts
12/03/2018 15:21:36	6699	Artifacts
03/02/2018 18:44:38	5014	Artifacts
02/07/2015 23:12:29	3458	Artifacts
27/06/2011 18:57:36	2304	Artifacts
26/11/2007 23:25:26	1318	Artifacts
12/08/2007 10:17:46	115	Artifacts

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Note last updated	Reading List for this Topic	Parent Topic
26/05/2020 21:51:50	Artifacts	Research - Proposal

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Summary of Note Links from this Page

Awaiting Attention (Personal Identity)	Constitution	Constitution View	Convention	Dud Note Refs
Functionalism	Homo Sapiens	Human Beings	Intermittent Objects	Natural Kinds
Nihilism	Note Links Explanation	Organisms	Persistence Criteria	Person
Plug Note Apologia	Quantum Mechanics	Resurrection	Ship of Theseus	Sortals
Thought Experiments

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

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Summary of Note Links to this Page

Aeon Papers	Concepts	Contingent Identity	Convention	Cyborgs
Intermittent Objects, 2	Olson - Immanent Causation and Life After Death	Ontology	Ship of Theseus, 2	Status: Personal Identity (2020 - March)
Status: Priority Task List (2020: May)	Status: Summary (2020 - March)

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?
Baker (Lynne Rudder)	N/A	Author
Clark (Andy) & Kuhn (Robert Lawrence)	Aeon: Video - Andy Clark - Virtual immortality	Paper		Yes
Corcoran (Kevin)	The Constitution View	Paper
Hershenov (David)	Review of Nancy Murphy's 'Bodies and Souls, or Spirited Bodies?'	Paper		Yes
Olson (Eric)	Immanent Causation and Life After Death	Paper		Yes
Swinburne (Richard)	How To Determine Which Is The True Theory Of Personal Identity	Paper
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Artifacts	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Concepts	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Contingent Identity	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Convention	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Cyborgs	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Intermittent Objects	Paper	2	Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Ontology	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Ship of Theseus	Paper	2	Yes
Wilson (Jack)	Beyond Horses and Oak Trees: A New Theory of Individuation for Living Entities	Paper		Yes
Zimmerman (Dean)	Theories of Masses and Problems of Constitution	Paper

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References & Reading List

Author	Title	Medium	Source	Read?
Baker (Lynne Rudder)	Artifacts	Paper - Cited	Baker (Lynne) - The Metaphysics of Everyday Life: An Essay in Practical Realism, Chapter 3	No
Baker (Lynne Rudder)	On the Twofold Nature of Artefacts: A Response to Wybo Houkes and Anthonie Meijers	Paper - Cited	Studies in the History and Philosophy of Science, 37:132–36, 2006	17%
Baker (Lynne Rudder)	Shrinking Difference - Response to Replies	Paper - Cited	American Philosophical Association Newsletter: Philosophy and Computers, 09(2):3–38, 2010	No
Baker (Lynne Rudder)	The Metaphysics of Everyday Life: An Essay in Practical Realism	Book - Cited (via Paper Cited)	Bibliographical details to be supplied	2%
Baker (Lynne Rudder)	The Metaphysics of Malfunction	Paper - Cited	Forthcoming in Techne, though presented at a conference (Artefacts in Philosophy) at the Delft University of Technology, Oct. 3-4, 2004.	7%
Baker (Lynne Rudder)	The Ontological Significance of Artefacts	Paper - Cited	Olga Soliarova, Ed., Ontologies of Artefacts. Moscow: Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration, Delo, 2011	6%
Baker (Lynne Rudder)	The Ontology of Artifacts	Paper - Cited	Philosophical Explorations, Jun2004, Vol. 7 Issue 2, p99-111, 13p	No
Baker (Lynne Rudder)	The Shrinking Difference Between Artifacts and Natural Objects	Paper - By Subtopic	American Philosophical Association Newsletter on Philosophy and Computers, 7(2), Spring 2008	11%
Bloom (Paul)	Artifacts	Paper - Cited	Bloom (Paul) - Descartes' Baby, Chapter 2	No
Bloom (Paul)	Descartes' Baby: How Child Development Explains What Makes Us Human	Book - Cited (via Paper Cited)	Bibliographical details to be supplied	No
Broackes (Justin) & Hacker (P.M.S.)	Substance: Things and Stuffs	Paper - By Subtopic	Supplement to the Proceedings of The Aristotelian Society 2004, Vol. 78 Issue 1, p41-63, 23p	No
Carter (William)	Artifacts of Theseus: Fact and Fission	Paper - Cited	Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 61.3 (September 1983)	Yes
Carter (William)	Salmon on Artifact Origins and Lost Possibilities	Paper - Cited	Philosophical Review 92, No. 2, Apr., 1983, pp. 223-231	No
Chandler (Hugh S.)	Theseus' Clothes-Pin	Paper - Cited	Analysis, Vol. 44, No. 2 (Mar., 1984), pp. 55-58	Yes
Dauer (Francis W.)	How Not to Reidentify the Parthenon	Paper - By Subtopic	Analysis, Vol. 33, No. 2 (Dec., 1972), pp. 63-64	No
Denkel (Arda)	Artifacts and Constituents	Paper - Cited	Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 55, No. 2, Jun., 1995, pp. 311-322	No
Dennett (Daniel)	Artifactual Selves: a Response to Lynne Rudder Baker	Paper - Cited	Phenomenology and Cognitive Sciences, March 2014	No
Dennett (Daniel)	The Self as a Responding - and Responsible - Artifact	Paper - Cited	Annals of New York Academy of Sciences, The Self from Soul to Brain 1001: 39-50.	No
Elder (Crawford)	Artifacts and Other Copied Kinds	Paper - Cited	Elder - Real Natures, 2004, Chapter 7	No
Elder (Crawford)	Real Natures and Familiar Objects	Book - By Subtopic (via Paper By Subtopic)	Elder (Crawford) - Real Natures and Familiar Objects	No
Elder (Crawford)	Real Natures and Familiar Objects	Book - Cited (via Paper Cited)	Bibliographical details to be supplied	No
Elder (Crawford)	Real Natures and Familiar Objects: Introduction	Paper - By Subtopic	Elder - Real Natures, 2004, Introduction	No
Ellis (Brian)	Australasian Journal of Philosophy - 61.3 (September 1983)	Book - Cited (via Paper Cited)	Bibliographical details to be supplied	83%
Fine (Gail)	Forms of Artefacts	Paper - By Subtopic	Fine - On Ideas - Aristotle's Criticism of Plato's Theory of Forms, Chapter 6	No
Fine (Gail)	On Ideas - Aristotle's Criticism of Plato's Theory of Forms	Book - By Subtopic (via Paper By Subtopic)	Fine (Gail) - On Ideas - Aristotle's Criticism of Plato's Theory of Forms	11%
Gasser (Georg), Ed.	Personal Identity and Resurrection: How Do We Survive Our Death?	Book - Cited (via Paper Cited)	Bibliographical details to be supplied	95%
Griffin (Donald)	Animal Minds	Book - By Subtopic (via Paper By Subtopic)	Griffin (Donald) - Animal Minds	2%
Griffin (Donald)	Construction of Artifacts	Paper - By Subtopic	Griffin (Donald) - Animal Minds, 1992, Chapter 4	No
Hains (Brigid) & Hains (Paul)	Aeon: 2019+	Paper - Referencing	Hains (Brigid) & Hains (Paul) - Aeon	Yes
Hains (Brigid) & Hains (Paul)	Aeon: A-B (& General)	Book - Referencing (via Paper Referencing)	Bibliographical details to be supplied	100%
Hains (Brigid) & Hains (Paul)	Aeon: G-K	Book - By Subtopic (via Paper By Subtopic)	Hains (Brigid) & Hains (Paul) - Aeon: G-K	34%
Hains (Brigid) & Hains (Paul)	Aeon: L-P	Book - Cited (via Paper Cited)	Bibliographical details to be supplied	37%
Han (Byung-Chul)	Shanzhai: Deconstruction in Chinese	Book - Cited	Han (Byung-Chul) - Shanzhai: Deconstruction in Chinese	4%
Han (Byung-Chul)	Shanzhai: Deconstruction in Chinese	Paper - By Subtopic	Han (Byung–Chul) - Shanzhai: Deconstruction in Chinese	6%
Han (Byung-Chul)	The copy is the original	Paper - By Subtopic	Aeon, 08 March, 2018	33%
Harari (Yuval Noah)	Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind	Book - Cited	Harari (Yuval Noah) - Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind	Yes
Harris (Henry)	Scientific Models and Man	Book - By Subtopic (via Paper By Subtopic)	Harris (Henry) - Scientific Models and Man	9%
Hazlett (Allan)	Disassembly and Destruction	Paper - Cited	The Monist, Vol. 89, No. 3, Coming into Being and Passing Away (July 2006), pp. 418-433	Yes
Hershenov (David)	Organisms, Artifacts, and Eliminativism	Paper - Cited	Pacific Philosophical Quarterly. (Resubmission Requested).	4%
Hershenov (David)	Scattered Artifacts	Paper - Cited	Southern Journal of Philosophy 42, 2002, pp. 211-216	No
Hoffman (Joshua) & Rosenkrantz (Gary)	Substance: Its Nature and Existence	Book - By Subtopic (via Paper By Subtopic)	Hoffman (Joshua) & Rosenkrantz (Gary) - Substance: Its Nature and Existence	No
Hoffman (Joshua) & Rosenkrantz (Gary)	What Kinds of Physical Substances are there?	Paper - By Subtopic	Hoffman & Rosenkrantz - Substance: Its Nature and Existence, Chapter 5	No
Houkes (Wybo) & Vermaas (Pieter)	Actions Versus Functions: A Plea For An Alternative Metaphysics Of Artifacts	Paper - Cited	Monist, Jan2004, Vol. 87 Issue 1, p52-71, 20p	No
Katayama (Errol)	Aristotle on Artifacts: A Metaphysical Puzzle	Book - Cited	Katayama (Errol) - Aristotle on Artifacts: A Metaphysical Puzzle	No
Lovibond (Sabina) & Williams (S.G.)	Identity, Truth & Value: Essays for David Wiggins	Book - Cited	Lovibond (Sabina) & Williams (S.G.) - Identity, Truth & Value: Essays for David Wiggins	16%
Lowe (E.J.)	On the Identity of Artifacts	Paper - Cited	Journal of Philosophy 80.4, April 1983, pp. 220-232	No
Lowenthal ( David)	Material Preservation and Its Alternatives	Paper - Cited	Perspecta, Vol. 25 (1989), pp. 66-77	Yes
Matthes (Erich Hatala)	Palmyra’s ruins can rebuild our relationship with history	Paper - Cited	Aeon, 08 March, 2017	Yes
Merricks (Trenton)	Belief and Practice	Paper - Cited	Merricks - Objects and Persons, 2001, Chapter 7	6%
Merricks (Trenton)	Explaining Eliminativism	Paper - Cited	Merricks - Objects and Persons, 2001, Chapter 1	25%
Merricks (Trenton)	Objects and Persons	Book - Cited	Merricks (Trenton) - Objects and Persons	10%
Olson (Eric)	Immanent Causation and Life After Death	Paper - Cited	Gasser (Georg) - Personal Identity and Resurrection: How Do We Survive Our Death? 2010	Yes
Pollock (John L.)	How to Build a Person: A Prolegomenon	Book - By Subtopic	Pollock (John L.) - How to Build a Person: A Prolegomenon	6%
Puccetti (Roland)	Person-Artifacts	Paper - Cited	Puccetti - Persons: A Study of Possible Moral Agents in the Universe, 1968, Chapter 2	No
Puccetti (Roland)	Persons: A Study of Possible Moral Agents in the Universe	Book - Cited (via Paper Cited)	Bibliographical details to be supplied	3%
Putman (Daniel)	Natural Kinds and Human Artifacts	Paper - Cited	Mind, 91, No. 363 (Jul., 1982), pp. 418-419	No
Richmond (Alasdair)	Time Travel, Parahistory and the Past Artefact Dilemma	Paper - Cited	Philosophy, Vol. 85, No. 333 (July 2010) (pp. 369-373)	17%
Simons (Peter)	On Being the Same Ship(s) - or Electron(s): Reply to Hughes	Paper - By Subtopic	Mind, 106, No. 424, Oct., 1997, pp. 761-767	No
Smart (Brian)	The Ship of Theseus, the Parthenon and Disassembled Objects	Paper - By Subtopic	Analysis, Vol. 34, No. 1 (Oct., 1973), pp. 24-27	No
Symons (John)	The Individuality of Artifacts and Organisms	Paper - Cited	History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences, Vol. 32, No. 2/3, The Concept of Organism: Historical, Philosophical, Scientific Perspectives (2010), pp. 233-246	No
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Artifacts	Paper - By Subtopic		Yes
Van Inwagen (Peter)	Artifacts	Paper - Cited	Van Inwagen - Material Beings; 1990; Ch. 13	No
Van Inwagen (Peter)	Material Beings	Book - Cited (via Paper Cited)	Bibliographical details to be supplied	40%
Wiggins (David)	Personal Identity	Paper - Cited	Wiggins - Sameness and Substance Renewed, 2001, Chapter 7	64%
Wiggins (David)	Reply to Snowdon (Persons and Personal Identity)	Paper - Cited	Lovibond & Williams - Identity, Truth & Value: Essays for David Wiggins, 1996	Yes
Wiggins (David)	Sameness and Substance Renewed	Book - Cited	Wiggins (David) - Sameness and Substance Renewed	16%
Wilkinson (D.H.)	The Universe as Artefact	Paper - By Subtopic	Harris - Scientific Models and Man	17%
Zimmerman (Dean)	Theories of Masses and Problems of Constitution	Paper - By Subtopic	Philosophical Review, vol. civ (1995), pp. 53–110	No

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