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Personal Identity

Biological View

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

Plug Note¹

• Thesis Text:
  1. The Biological View (BV) is that we are² biological organisms³, and – in particular – have the persistence conditions⁴ of biological organisms. Since the organisms we are are obviously human animals⁵, this view is effectively just Animalism⁶.
  2. However, it is just possible that the BV and Animalism might part company for some philosophers. Maybe you might think that we are essentially animals, but can metamorphose⁷ from one species to another or be reincarnated⁸ as an individual of another species – or as a different individual of the same species. These might count as variants of the BV, but would not be Animalism⁹ as commonly understood, since it presupposes that we cease to be at death, and are essentially human animals¹⁰ and, indeed, essentially one and the same human animal.
  3. The BV is to be distinguished from older physicalist¹¹ variants – in particular the “Body View¹²”.
  4. For the detailed principles of individuation and persistence criteria associated with the BV, see the Biological Criterion¹³.

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  Further Remarks
  1. It is somewhat arbitrary as to which works fall under this topic, and which under
     • The Biological Criterion¹⁴ or
     • Animalism¹⁵
  2. I’ve tended to have a rather full list of those items that I’ve read, but the “further reading” list is somewhat minimalist.

References

• Relevant Works cited above: No items to list.
• Works on this topic that I’ve actually read¹⁶, include the following:-
  • General:
    1. "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - Embryos and Stem­Cell Research", 2006, External Link, Internal PDF Link
    2. "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - What Am I?", 1999, Write-Up Note¹⁷, Annotations, External Link, Internal PDF Link, Footnote₁₈
    3. "Bourget (David) & Chalmers (David) - The PhilPapers Surveys: What Do Philosophers Believe?", 2014, Annotations, Internal PDF Link
    4. "Carter (William) - Will I Be a Dead Person?", 1999, Annotations, Internal PDF Link
    5. "Lerner (Berel Dov) - Review of 'Personal Identity and Ethics: A Brief Introduction' by David Shoemaker", 2009
    6. "Olson (Eric) - Persistence", 1999, Footnote₁₉
    7. "Olson (Eric) - Psychology and Personal Identity", 1999
    8. "Olson (Eric) - Reply to Lynne Rudder Baker", 1999, Annotations, Internal PDF Link
    9. "Olson (Eric) - The Human Animal - Personal Identity Without Psychology", 1997, Book
    10. "Olson (Eric) - Was I Ever a Fetus?", 1997, Annotations, Internal PDF Link
    11. "Olson (Eric) - Why We Need Not Accept the Psychological Approach", 1999
    12. "Shoemaker (David) - Personal Identity and Ethics: A Brief Introduction", 2009, Book, Footnote₂₀
    13. "Wilson (Jack) - Biological Individuality - The identity and Persistence of Living Entities", 1999, Book
• A further reading list might start with:-
  • General:
    1. "Cerullo (Michael A.) - Uploading and Branching Identity", 2015, Annotations, External Link, Internal PDF Link, Read = 133%, Footnote₂₁
    2. "DeGrazia (David) - Human Identity and Bioethics", 2005, Book, Read = 7%
    3. "Hershenov (David) - Review of David DeGrazia’s Human Identity and Bioethics", 2008, Annotations, External Link, Internal PDF Link, Read = 83%
    4. "Liao (S. Matthew) - Twinning, Inorganic Replacement, and the Organism View", 2010, Internal PDF Link, Read = 11%
    5. "Velleman (David) - Family History", 2005, External Link, Internal PDF Link, Read = 17%
    6. "Young (J.Z.) - An Introduction to the Study of Man", 1971, Book

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• 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-holder²².

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In-Page Footnotes:

Footnote 18:

• See Draft Note, Review Comments.

Footnote 19:

• Olson is one of the primary exponents of the Biological View, so almost anything by him might be cited.
• I’ve restricted the list to those items that – in the text or comments I’ve incorporated on-line – explicitly use the term.

Footnote 20:

• For a review, see "Lerner (Berel Dov) - Review of 'Personal Identity and Ethics: A Brief Introduction' by David Shoemaker".

Footnote 21:

• Very tangentially relevant, but Uploading and the BV are antithetical theories of PID.

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Table of the Previous 11 Versions of this Note:

Date	Length	Title
20/09/2022 11:24:00	3569	Biological View
06/05/2022 12:50:24	3188	Biological View
11/02/2021 11:29:46	3070	Biological View
17/05/2020 22:04:48	2498	Biological View
12/06/2018 20:44:10	3960	Biological View
10/04/2017 23:38:24	1515	Biological View
27/06/2011 18:57:36	702	Biological View
18/12/2010 19:58:05	361	Biological View
18/08/2009 20:39:50	351	Biological View
26/11/2007 23:25:26	299	Biological View
12/08/2007 10:17:46	285	Biological View

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Note last updated	Reading List for this Topic	Parent Topic
06/07/2023 00:43:12	Biological View	Animalism

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Summary of Notes Referenced by This Note

Animalism	Awaiting Attention (Personal Identity)	Baker - What Am I?	Biological Criterion	Body Criterion
Human Animals	Jen_080317 (Baker)	Metamorphosis	Organisms	Persistence Criteria
Physicalism	Plug Note Apologia	Reincarnation	Uploading	What are We?
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

Abbreviations, 2	Biological Criterion, 2	Bodily Continuity	Noonan - Persons and Bodies - Response, 2	Persistence Criteria
PID Note, Book & Paper Usage, 2, 3	Thesis - Chapter 02 (What are We?)	Thesis - Chapter 05 (Persistence and Time)	Thesis - Chapter 06 (Animalism and Arguments for It), 2, 3, 4, 5, 6	Thesis - Current Stance
Thesis - Personal Identity, 2, 3, 4, 5	Website Generator Documentation - Functors, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

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)	Embryos and Stem­Cell Research	Paper		Yes
Baker (Lynne Rudder)	What Am I?	Paper	2	Yes
Bourget (David) & Chalmers (David)	The PhilPapers Surveys: What Do Philosophers Believe?	Paper	2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10	Yes
Carter (William)	Will I Be a Dead Person?	Paper	2, 3	Yes
Cerullo (Michael A.)	Uploading and Branching Identity	Paper
DeGrazia (David)	Human Identity and Bioethics	Book	2
DeGrazia (David)	Human Identity and Bioethics: Introduction	Paper	2	Yes
DeGrazia (David)	Human Persons: Numerical Identity and Essence	Paper
Meincke (Anne Sophie)	Human Persons – A Process View	Paper		Yes
Noonan (Harold)	Arguments Against Animalism: Comments on L.R.Baker 'Persons & Bodies'	Paper	2	Yes
Olson (Eric)	Persistence	Paper		Yes
Olson (Eric)	Psychology and Personal Identity	Paper	2	Yes
Olson (Eric)	Reply to Lynne Rudder Baker	Paper		Yes
Olson (Eric)	Was I Ever a Fetus?	Paper		Yes
Olson (Eric)	Why We Need Not Accept the Psychological Approach	Paper		Yes
Shoemaker (David)	Personal Identity and Ethics - Introduction	Paper		Yes
Shoemaker (David)	Personal Identity and Immortality	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Abbreviations	Paper	2	Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Biological Criterion	Paper	2	Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Bodily Continuity	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Chapter 02 (What Are We?)	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Chapter 05 (Persistence and Time)	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Chapter 06 (Animalism and Arguments for It)	Paper	2, 3, 4, 5, 6	Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Current Position	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Persistence Criteria	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Personal Identity	Paper	2, 3, 4, 5
Young (J.Z.)	An Introduction to the Study of Man	Book

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References & Reading List

Author	Title	Medium	Source	Read?
Baker (Lynne Rudder)	Embryos and Stem­Cell Research	Paper - Cited	UMass Magazine, Spring 2006	Yes
Calvo (Paco)	The philosophy of plant neurobiology: a manifesto	Paper - By Subtopic	Synthese , May 2016, Vol. 193, No. 5, Special Issue on Neuroscience And Its Philosophy (2014–2015) (May 2016), pp. 1323-1343	6%
Calvo (Paco)	What Is It Like to Be a Plant?	Paper - By Subtopic	Journal of Consciousness Studies, 24, No. 9–10, 2017, pp. 205–27	5%
Carter (William)	Will I Be a Dead Person?	Paper - By Subtopic	Philosophy and Phenomenological Research Mar99, Vol. 59 Issue 1, p167, 5p;	Yes
Cerullo (Michael A.)	Uploading and Branching Identity	Paper - Cited	Minds & Machines (2015) 25:17–36	78%
DeGrazia (David)	Human Identity and Bioethics	Book - Cited	DeGrazia (David) - Human Identity and Bioethics	7%
DeGrazia (David)	Human Identity and Bioethics: Introduction	Paper - By Subtopic	DeGrazia - Human Identity and Bioethics, 2005, Chapter 1, 1978	Yes
Gagliano (Monica)	The mind of plants: Thinking the unthinkable	Paper - By Subtopic	Communicative and Integrative Biology, 10, 2017	Yes
Henriques (Martha)	Organisms might be quantum machines	Paper - By Subtopic	BBC Website ("Earth"), 18th July 2016	Yes
Meincke (Anne Sophie)	Autopoiesis, Biological Autonomy and the Process View of Life	Paper - By Subtopic	European Journal for Philosophy of Science (2019) 9:5	11%
Meincke (Anne Sophie)	Bio-Agency and the Possibility of Artificial Agents	Paper - By Subtopic	Philosophy of Science - Between the Natural Sciences, the Social Sciences, and the Humanities. ed. by G. Schurz. Dordrecht: Springer. 2018	5%
Meincke (Anne Sophie)	Review of Chauncey Maher's 'Plant Minds'	Paper - By Subtopic	The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science: Review of Books, 2019	Yes
Meincke (Anne Sophie)	Systems or Bodies? On How (Not) to Embody Autopoiesis	Paper - By Subtopic	Adaptive Behavior, Published On-Line 8 April 2019	No
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	Olson (Eric) - The Human Animal - Personal Identity Without Psychology	Yes
Shoemaker (David)	Personal Identity and Ethics - Introduction	Paper - By Subtopic	Shoemaker (David) - Personal Identity and Ethics: A Brief Introduction, 2009, Introduction	Yes
Shoemaker (David)	Personal Identity and Ethics: A Brief Introduction	Book - By Subtopic (via Paper By Subtopic)	Shoemaker (David) - Personal Identity and Ethics: A Brief Introduction	Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Biological View	Paper - By Subtopic		Yes
Trewavas (Anthony)	Aspects of Plant Intelligence	Paper - By Subtopic	Annals of Botany, 92, pp. 1–20, 2003	6%
Trewavas (Anthony)	Plant intelligence: Mindless mastery	Paper - By Subtopic	Nature, 415, p. 841, 2002	No
Young (J.Z.)	An Introduction to the Study of Man	Book - By Subtopic	Young (J.Z.) - An Introduction to the Study of Man	No

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Text Colour Conventions

1. Blue: Text by me; © Theo Todman, 2025

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