Theo Todman's Web Page - Notes Pages
Personal Identity
Thesis - Method & Form
(Text as at 22/07/2014 22:23:31)
*** THIS IS NOT THE LATEST VERSION OF THIS NOTE ***
(For the live version and other versions of this Note, see the tables at the end)
Form of the Argument
- The thesis will present an abductive argument (as in my BA Dissertation “Poverty of Stimulus Arguments for Innate Grammar”), that is, an inference to the best explanation of the data.
- That’s why I have to consider so many aspects of the subject, so many thought experiments1 and so much clinical2 data3. Into which story does it all best fit?
- I may have to reject some recalcitrant thought experiments as ill-formed, but I do not wish to ignore anything significant.
- For some time, I have considered Animalism as the most likely account of what human beings are, and I propose this thesis to evaluate the arguments for and against it, using the rival “Constitution View” as a foil.
Method
- Over the years I have read a lot of books and papers on the topic of Personal Identity.
- For some, I have made extensive on-line write-ups.
- For others, the write-up is incomplete, or sketchy.
- For yet others, I have (more or less) extensively annotated the margin (in so doing ruining many an expensive volume!).
- Finally, some have simply been read (and probably forgotten).
- I have also written numerous Notes on almost every aspect of the subject, though many of them are place-holders awaiting filling-out. These Notes link to the Books and Papers, either explicitly or thematically, and to one another.
- Follow this Link4 for an explanation of the various Objects in my Research database, though the Note needs updating in the light of changes since 2010.
- All this has resulted in a huge unfocussed cobweb of material, which needs to be subjected to some order and completeness. This has started by outlining the Chapters of the Thesis5, and specifying the limited subset of the problem I intend to address in detail.
- For most Chapters, my approach to producing the first draft of the Chapter will be as follows:-
- Determine which Notes that I have written are relevant to this Chapter.
- Fill out any Note-place-holders with whatever’s in my head!
- Use the reading lists associated with these Notes to establish a limited reading list for the Chapter.
- Review whatever I’ve written, in whatever format, on the items in the derived reading lists, and make necessary cosmetic changes in the process of evaluating the items.
- Segregate6 this reading list into:-
… Higher versus lower priority,
… Read versus unread,
… Annotated (by hand) versus unannotated
… Those with an Abstract or Note Write-up versus those without
- Cull items that are unlikely to be addressed in the next two years and list them as specifically excluded. I may pick up on these at a later stage of the project, but in the short term the culling process will be essential for making across-the-board progress.
- Determine why the residue are important and relevant – if they are – and briefly document the reasons.
- Migrate any Book or Paper Abstracts that I have written (as distinct from copied from elsewhere) to Write-Up Notes.
- If the Book or Paper is important enough, migrate any hand-written annotations to a Write-Up Note, and complete any important incomplete Write-Up Notes.
- Write and maintain a Chapter Summary, motivating and summarising the Chapter. Use this to ensure I don’t get side-tracked.
- Incorporate the key points of Write-Up Notes into the Topic Notes.
- Incorporate the highest level thoughts from the Topic Notes into the Main Text of the Chapter.
- In principle, these actions should be effected in number sequence, though there will be some iteration, particularly with the last point, which presents my research findings in their most accessible form for outside interested parties.
- There are many important papers that are on the reading lists that I have not read. At this stage, I do not intend to read them until I have processed all those papers that I have read. This will require discipline!
- Most of the “detailed working” of the Chapter should be retained in the topic Notes and Write-ups. The Chapter should be fairly high-level at this stage, with hyperlinks to more detailed or supportive work.
- I need to have some method of evidencing how far along this trial I have got for each Chapter, but this can wait until there is some progress to report.
In-Page Footnotes
Footnote 2: I am unsure how much of this I have actually attended to – but it is important to keep it in mind.
Footnote 6: I need to develop a method for this – one probably variable depending on the length of the list.
Live Version of this Archived Note
Earlier Version of this Note
| This version updated |
Reading List for this Topic |
Parent Topic |
| 22/07/2014 22:23:31 |
None available |
Research - Proposal |
Summary of Notes Links from this Page
To access information, click on one of the links in the table above (if any).
Summary of Note Links to this Page
| Thesis - Chapter 01 (Introduction), 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 |
Thesis - Chapter 02 (What are We?), 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 |
Thesis - Chapter 03 (What is a Person?), 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 |
Thesis - Chapter 04 (Basic Metaphysical Issues), 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 |
Thesis - Chapter 05 (Persistence and Time), 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 |
| 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), 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 |
Thesis - Chapter 08 (Arguments against Animalism), 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 |
Thesis - Chapter 09 (Arguments against the Constitution View), 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 |
Thesis - Chapter 10 (Thought Experiments), 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 |
| Thesis - Chapter 11 (Resurrection), 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 |
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- Blue: Text by me; © Theo Todman, 2026