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Personal Identity

Kinds

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

Plug Note¹

• Thesis Text:
  1. This may be an important topic, particularly in distinguishing Natural Kinds² from other Kinds, as the question whether Persons³ (or even human persons⁴) fall under a natural kind concept is critical to the debate between animalists⁵ and those favouring the constitution view⁶.
  2. I can’t see much difference between Sortals⁷ and Kinds, and Natural Kinds⁸ are obviously a subset of Kinds. Phase Sortals⁹ are a bit like jobs, so may not be kinds at all.
  3. But if (as I believe) persons are Phase Sortals¹⁰ of human animals¹¹, then this can’t be right if persons form a kind as seems likely.
  4. Kinds may be instantiated Concepts¹²; so, are sets of things, but with a principled array of entry-criteria, which would allow members of multiple natural Kinds to belong (for Persons¹³, this might be the usual suspects – God, aliens, human beings, the great Apes, and so on).

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  Further Remarks:
  1. There is considerable overlap between this Note and the following:-
     1. Natural Kinds¹⁴.
     2. Sortals¹⁵
     3. Phase Sortals¹⁶
  2. This Note should focus on the more general aspects of this nexus of ideas.
  3. The study-list for Kinds should be quite extensive, but – based on the categorised reading list below – I don’t seem to have much that’s not covered by “Natural Kinds¹⁷”.

References

• Relevant Works cited above: No items to list.
• For a Page of Links¹⁸ to this Note, Click here. I’ve restricted the list to just “kinds” rather than including “kind”, but there are still too many links – many of them irrelevant – to process.
• Works on this topic that I’ve actually read¹⁹, include the following:-
  • General:
    1. "Ayers (Michael R.) - Locke on 'Masses of Matter'", 1991, Annotations
    2. "Baur (Michael) - Review of 'Kinds of Being: A Study of Individuation, Identity and the Logic of Sortal Terms' by E. J. Lowe", 1992, Internal PDF Link
    3. "Butchvarov (Panayot) - Being Qua Being: Introduction", 1979
    4. "Dennett (Daniel) - Kinds of Minds: Preface", 1996
    5. "Hawley (Katherine) - How Things Persist: Introduction", 2001
    6. "Olson (Eric) - Persistence", 1999
    7. "Olson (Eric) - The Human Animal: Introduction", 1999
    8. "Olson (Eric) - What Are We? The Question", 2007, Write-Up Note²⁰, Internal PDF Link
    9. "Rosenkrantz (Gary) - Reflections on the Ontological Status of Persons", 2002, Internal PDF Link
    10. "Shoemaker (David) - Personal Identity, Rational Anticipation, and Self-Concern", 2009
    11. "Trettin (Kathe) - Persons and Other Trope Complexes. Reflections on Ontology and Normativity", 2003, Annotations, Internal PDF Link
    12. "Unger (Peter) - A Physically Based Approach To Our Survival", 1992
    13. "Van Inwagen (Peter) - Material Beings: Preface", 1990, Annotations
    14. "Wiggins (David) - Preface: Sameness and Substance Renewed", 2001, Annotations
    15. "Wilson (Jack) - Generation and Corruption", 1999, Annotations
    16. "Wilson (Jack) - Identity and Sortals: Why Relative Identity Is Self-Contradictory", 1999, Annotations
    17. "Wilson (Jack) - Personal Identity Naturalized: Our Bodies, Our Selves", 1999, Annotations
• A further reading list might start with:-
  • General:
    1. "Doepke (Frederick) - The Kinds of Things: A Theory of Personal Identity Based on Transcendental Argument", 1996, Book, Read = 3%, Footnote₂₁
    2. "Elder (Crawford) - Real Natures and Familiar Objects", 2004, Book, Note: Read the Synopsis first.
    3. "Elder (Crawford) - Real Natures and Familiar Objects: Synopsis", 2004, No Abstract, Internal PDF Link, Read = 8%
    4. "French (Peter) - Kinds and Persons", 1983, Internal PDF Link
    5. "Godman (Marion), Mallozzi (Antonella) & Papineau (David) - Essential Properties Are Super-Explanatory: Taming Metaphysical Modality", 2020, Internal PDF Link, Read = 6%
    6. "Heller (Mark) - The Mad Scientist Meets the Robot Cats: Compatibilism, Kinds, and Counterexamples", 1996, Internal PDF Link
    7. "Johnston (Mark) - Manifest Kinds", 1997, Internal PDF Link, Read = 17%
    8. "Korman (Daniel Z.) - Strange Kinds, Familiar Kinds, and the Charge of Arbitrariness", 2010, Internal PDF Link, Read = 5%
    9. "Kornblith (Hilary) - Concepts and Kinds", 1995
    10. "LaPorte (Joseph) - Does a type specimen necessarily or contingently belong to its species?", 2003, Internal PDF Link
    11. "LaPorte (Joseph) - In search of pigeonholes", 1995, Internal PDF Link
    12. "Lowe (E.J.) - Kinds of Being: Study of Individuation, Identity and the Logic of Sortal Terms", 1989, Book
    13. "Lowe (E.J.) - Kinds, Essence, and Natural Necessity", 2002, No Abstract
    14. "Lowe (E.J.) - More Kinds of Being: A Further Study of Individuation, Identity and the Logic of Sortal Terms", 2015, Book, Read = 3%, Footnote₂₂
    15. "Moran (Alexander P.) - Kind-Dependent Grounding", 2018, External Link, Internal PDF Link, Read = 5%
    16. "Mumford (Stephen) - Kinds, Essences, Powers", 2005, Internal PDF Link
    17. "Schwartz (Stephen P.) - Kinds, General Terms, and Rigidity: A Reply to LaPorte", 2002, Internal PDF Link
    18. "Summerford (James) - Neither Universals Nor Nominalism. Kinds and the Problem of Universals", 2003, Internal PDF Link
    19. "Trettin (Kathe) - Kinds of Necessity: A Commentary on E.J.Lowe's Paper 'Kinds, Essence, and Natural Necessity'", 2002, No Abstract
    20. "Wilkerson (T.E.) - Species and Kinds", 1995
    21. "Wilkerson (T.E.) - The Names of Kinds", 1995

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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-holder²³.

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In-Page Footnotes:

Footnote 21:

• I doubt this has much to do with Kinds as such – despite the book’s title – but is more to do with Doepke’s ideas on PID.

Footnote 22:

• This supercedes "Lowe (E.J.) - Kinds of Being: Study of Individuation, Identity and the Logic of Sortal Terms", which is useful for reference only

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Table of the Previous 10 Versions of this Note:

Date	Length	Title
20/09/2022 11:24:00	3904	Kinds
01/05/2022 18:20:10	3577	Kinds
02/07/2021 20:32:38	3354	Kinds
14/02/2021 12:51:50	2960	Kinds
28/09/2020 13:06:14	2572	Kinds
23/07/2018 23:00:58	4350	Kinds
05/04/2016 23:19:41	2061	Kinds
18/12/2010 19:58:05	379	Kinds
26/11/2007 23:25:26	367	Kinds
12/08/2007 10:17:46	80	Kinds

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Note last updated	Reading List for this Topic	Parent Topic
06/07/2023 00:43:12	Kinds	Research - Proposal

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Summary of Notes Referenced by This Note

Animalism	Awaiting Attention (Personal Identity)	Concepts	Constitution View	Human Animals
Human Persons	Natural Kinds	Note Links Explanation	Olson - What Are We? The Question	Person
Phase Sortals	Plug Note Apologia	Sortals	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

Baker - Materialism with a Human Face, 2, 3, 4	Baker - Persons in the Material World, 2, 3	Baker - The Constitution View of Human Persons	Baker - The Very Idea of Constitution	Cartesian Ego
Clinical Observations	Constitution View	Criteria of Identity	Existential Passage	Human Animals
Johnston - Human Beings, 2	Natural Kinds	Noonan - Persons and Bodies - Response	Olson - What Are We? The Question	Ontology
Persistence	Persistence Criteria	Phase Sortals	PID Note, Book & Paper Usage, 2, 3, 4	Semantics
Sortals	Statue and the Clay	Thesis - Chapter 02 (What are We?)	Thesis - Chapter 04 (Basic Metaphysical Issues), 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11	Thesis - Chapter 05 (Persistence and Time), 2
Thesis - Chapter 06 (Animalism and Arguments for It)	Thesis - Chapter 07 (The Constitution View and Arguments for It), 2	Thesis - Chapter 10 (Thought Experiments)	Thesis - Current Stance	Thesis - Personal Identity, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15
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)	Materialism with a Human Face	Paper	2, 3, 4	Yes
Baker (Lynne Rudder)	Persons in the Material World	Paper	2, 3	Yes
Baker (Lynne Rudder)	The Constitution View of Human Persons	Paper		Yes
Baker (Lynne Rudder)	The Very Idea of Constitution	Paper		Yes
Baker (Lynne Rudder)	When Do Persons Begin and End?	Paper		Yes
Gasser (Georg)	Personal Identity and Resurrection: Introduction	Paper		Yes
Johnston (Mark)	Human Beings	Paper	2	Yes
Meincke (Anne Sophie)	Human Persons – A Process View	Paper		Yes
Noonan (Harold)	Arguments Against Animalism: Comments on L.R.Baker 'Persons & Bodies'	Paper		Yes
Olson (Eric)	Persistence	Paper		Yes
Olson (Eric)	Psychology and Personal Identity	Paper		Yes
Olson (Eric)	What Are We? The Question	Paper		Yes
Shoemaker (David)	Personal Identity and Ethics - Introduction	Paper		Yes
Shoemaker (David)	Personal Identity, Rational Anticipation, and Self-Concern	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Cartesian Ego	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Chapter 02 (What Are We?)	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Chapter 04 (Basic Metaphysical Issues)	Paper	2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11	Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Chapter 05 (Persistence and Time)	Paper	2	Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Chapter 06 (Animalism and Arguments for It)	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Chapter 07 (The Constitution View and Arguments for It)	Paper	2	Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Chapter 10 (Thought Experiments)	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Clinical Observations	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Constitution View	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Criteria of Identity	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Current Position	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Human Animals	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Natural Kinds	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Ontology	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Persistence	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Persistence Criteria	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Personal Identity	Paper	2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Phase Sortals	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Semantics	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Sortals	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Statue and the Clay	Paper		Yes
Wilson (Jack)	Personal Identity Naturalized: Our Bodies, Our Selves	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	26%
Ayers (Michael R.)	Locke on 'Masses of Matter'	Paper - Cited	Ayers - Locke (Vol. 2 - Ontology), 1991, Chapter 18, pp. 207-215	Yes
Bird (Alexander) & Tobin (Emma)	Natural Kinds	Paper - By Subtopic	Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy, 2008-17	50%
Bottani (Andrea C.), Carrara (Massimiliano) & Giaretta (Pierdaniele), Eds.	Individuals, Essence And Identity: Themes of Analytic Metaphysics	Book - By Subtopic (via Paper By Subtopic)	Bottani (Andrea C.), Carrara (Massimiliano) & Giaretta (Pierdaniele), Eds. - Individuals, Essence And Identity: Themes of Analytic Metaphysics	1%
Doepke (Frederick)	Essence as Activity	Paper - By Subtopic	Doepke - The Kinds of Things, Chapter 6	No
Doepke (Frederick)	Establishing an Essence	Paper - By Subtopic	Doepke - The Kinds of Things, Chapter 8	No
Doepke (Frederick)	I am a Single Thing	Paper - By Subtopic	Doepke - The Kinds of Things, Chapter 2	No
Doepke (Frederick)	Introduction: What Are We?	Paper - By Subtopic	Doepke - The Kinds of Things, Chapter 1	9%
Doepke (Frederick)	The Importance of the Metaphysics of Persons	Paper - By Subtopic	Doepke - The Kinds of Things, Chapter 3	No
Doepke (Frederick)	The Justification of Individuation	Paper - By Subtopic	Doepke - The Kinds of Things, Chapter 5	No
Doepke (Frederick)	The Kinds of Things: A Theory of Personal Identity Based on Transcendental Argument	Book - Cited	Doepke (Frederick) - The Kinds of Things: A Theory of Personal Identity Based on Transcendental Argument	3%
Doepke (Frederick)	The Kinds of Things: A Theory of Personal Identity Based on Transcendental Argument: Preface	Paper - By Subtopic	Doepke - The Kinds of Things, Preface	No
Doepke (Frederick)	The Priority of Continuants	Paper - By Subtopic	Doepke - The Kinds of Things, Chapter 4	No
Elder (Crawford)	Higher and Lower Essential Natures	Paper - By Subtopic	American Philosophical Quarterly, 31.3, July 1994, pp. 255-265	No
Elder (Crawford)	Real Essential Natures, or Merely Real Kinds?	Paper - By Subtopic	Elder - Real Natures, 2004, Chapter 3	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: Synopsis	Paper - Cited	Website	8%
Forbes (Graeme)	Origin and Identity	Paper - By Subtopic	Philosophical Studies 37, 1980, pp. 353-362	No
French (Peter)	Kinds and Persons	Paper - By Subtopic	Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 44, No. 2, Dec., 1983, pp. 241-254	No
Godman (Marion), Mallozzi (Antonella) & Papineau (David)	Essential Properties Are Super-Explanatory: Taming Metaphysical Modality	Paper - By Subtopic	Journal of the American Philosophical Association (2020) pp. 316-334	6%
Heller (Mark)	The Mad Scientist Meets the Robot Cats: Compatibilism, Kinds, and Counterexamples	Paper - By Subtopic	Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, Vol. 56, No. 2 (Jun., 1996) (pp. 333-337)	No
Hoffman (Joshua) & Rosenkrantz (Gary)	Organisms and Natural Kinds	Paper - By Subtopic	Hoffman & Rosenkrantz - Substance: Its Nature and Existence, Appendix. Pp. 188-191	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
Johnston (Mark)	Manifest Kinds	Paper - By Subtopic	The Journal of Philosophy, Vol. 94, No. 11 (Nov., 1997), pp. 564-583	17%
Korman (Daniel Z.)	Strange Kinds, Familiar Kinds, and the Charge of Arbitrariness	Paper - By Subtopic	Oxford Studies in Metaphysics:119-144 (2010)	5%
Kornblith (Hilary)	Concepts and Kinds	Paper - By Subtopic	Kornblith - Inductive Inference and Its Natural Ground, 1995, Chapter 4	No
Kornblith (Hilary)	Inductive Inference and Its Natural Ground - an Essay in Naturalistic Epistemology	Book - By Subtopic (via Paper By Subtopic)	Kornblith (Hilary) - Inductive Inference and Its Natural Ground - an Essay in Naturalistic Epistemology	No
Kornblith (Hilary)	The Naturalistic Project in Epistemology	Paper - By Subtopic	Kornblith - Inductive Inference and Its Natural Ground, 1995, Chapter 1	No
LaPorte (Joseph)	Does a type specimen necessarily or contingently belong to its species?	Paper - By Subtopic	Biology and Philosophy, Volume 18, Number 4, September 2003, pp. 583-588(6)	No
LaPorte (Joseph)	Essential Membership	Paper - By Subtopic	Philosophy of Science 64, No. 1. (Mar., 1997), pp. 96-112	No
LaPorte (Joseph)	In search of pigeonholes	Paper - By Subtopic	Philosophical Quarterly, 1995, Vol. 45 Issue 181, p499, 7p	No
LaPorte (Joseph)	Natural Kinds and Conceptual Change	Book - By Subtopic	LaPorte (Joseph) - Natural Kinds and Conceptual Change	No
LaPorte (Joseph)	Natural Kinds and Conceptual Change	Paper - By Subtopic	LaPorte (Joseph) - Natural Kinds and Conceptual Change	No
Lizza (John)	Persons: Natural, Functional, or Ethical Kind?	Paper - By Subtopic	The American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Vol. 66, No. 1, The Challenges of Globalization: Rethinking Nature, Culture, and Freedom (Jan., 2007), pp. 195-216	No
Lowe (E.J.)	Categories and Kinds	Paper - By Subtopic	Lowe - The Possibility of Metaphysics, 2001, Chapter 8	No
Lowe (E.J.)	Kinds of Being: Introduction	Paper - By Subtopic	Lowe - Kinds of Being, 1989, Chapter 1	No
Lowe (E.J.)	Kinds of Being: Study of Individuation, Identity and the Logic of Sortal Terms	Book - Referenced	Lowe (E.J.) - Kinds of Being: Study of Individuation, Identity and the Logic of Sortal Terms	No
Lowe (E.J.)	Kinds, Essence, and Natural Necessity	Paper - By Subtopic	Bottani - Individuals, Essence and Identity, 2002, pp. 189-206	No
Lowe (E.J.)	More Kinds of Being: A Further Study of Individuation, Identity and the Logic of Sortal Terms	Book - Referenced	Lowe (E.J.) - More Kinds of Being: A Further Study of Individuation, Identity and the Logic of Sortal Terms	3%
Lowe (E.J.)	The Possibility of Metaphysics: Substance, Identity and Time	Book - By Subtopic (via Paper By Subtopic)	Lowe (E.J.) - The Possibility of Metaphysics: Substance, Identity and Time	No
Miller (Kristie)	Persons as Sui Generis Ontological Kinds: Advice to Exceptionists	Paper - By Subtopic	Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, Vol. 81, No. 3 (November, 2010), pp. 567-593	4%
Moran (Alexander P.)	Kind-Dependent Grounding	Paper - By Subtopic	Penultimate draft. Final draft published in Analytic Philosophy, 59 (3): 359-390 (2018)	5%
Schwartz (Stephen P.)	Kinds, General Terms, and Rigidity: A Reply to LaPorte	Paper - By Subtopic	Philosophical Studies 109, Number 3, June 2002, pp. 265-277(14)	No
Summerford (James)	Neither Universals Nor Nominalism. Kinds and the Problem of Universals	Paper - By Subtopic	Metaphysica 4.1 (2003), pp. 101-126	No
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Kinds	Paper - By Subtopic		Yes
Trettin (Kathe)	Kinds of Necessity: A Commentary on E.J.Lowe's Paper 'Kinds, Essence, and Natural Necessity'	Paper - By Subtopic	Bottani - Individuals, Essence and Identity, 2002, pp. 207-213	No
Wilkerson (T.E.)	Individual Essences	Paper - By Subtopic	Wilkerson - Natural Kinds, 1995, Chapter 6	No
Wilkerson (T.E.)	Natural Kinds	Book - By Subtopic	Wilkerson (T.E.) - Natural Kinds	No
Wilkerson (T.E.)	The Names of Kinds	Paper - By Subtopic	Wilkerson - Natural Kinds, 1995, Chapter 4	No
Wilkerson (T.E.)	What Exists?	Paper - By Subtopic	Wilkerson - Natural Kinds, 1995, Chapter 1	No

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

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