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Personal Identity

Nihilism

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

Plug Note¹

• Thesis Text:
  1. Otherwise known as Eliminitivism, Nihilism is the view that there are no persons or – more alarmingly – that we don’t exist.
  2. Whether what is eliminated is the same in all cases must await detailed examination.
     1. Peter Unger – at least at one time₂ – argued (rather improbably) that:-
        • He didn’t exist: "Unger (Peter) - I Do Not Exist" (1979).
        • There are no people: "Unger (Peter) - Why There Are No People" (1979), though this seems to be a corollary of a more general thesis, introduced in Section 6.
        • There are no ordinary things: "Unger (Peter) - There are no Ordinary Things" (1979).
     2. Eric Olson:
        • "Olson (Eric) - What Are We? Nihilism" (2007) considers the matter (but rejects the thesis).
        • Olson accepts some of the arguments that lead to nihilism. See:-
          → "Olson (Eric) - Why I Have No Hands" (1995), as sensationalised in …
          → "Marshall (Richard) & Olson (Eric) - Eric T. Olson: The Philosopher with No Hands" (2012).
     3. Peter Van Inwagen: thinks that all that exists are organisms and simples. See:-
        → "Van Inwagen (Peter) - Extreme Answers to the Special Composition Question: Nihilism and Universalism" (1990)
        This is no threat to the elimination of persons, of course.
     4. "Merricks (Trenton) - Objects and Persons" (2001); in particular:-
        → "Merricks (Trenton) - Surviving Eliminativism", and
        → "Merricks (Trenton) - Considerations in Favour of Eliminating Us?"
        Merricks thinks that we – and other organisms – exist, but that statues don’t. Again, this is no threat to the existence of persons.
  3. One reason for considering this topic is that lots of the arguments – sorites-style³, or “too many occupants” – occur throughout the topic of personal identity. If they are unsound here, they may be so elsewhere.
  4. In particular, it’ll be interesting to compare Olson’s argument that he has no hands with his “thinking animal⁴” argument. He seems committed to both.

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  Further Remarks:
  1. Note that nihilism is also used in many other contexts. Obviously, I ignore the ethical / political sense. But there is also the mereological⁵ sense, which is more relevant to my concerns. Mereological nihilism is the doctrine that things don’t have proper parts.

References

• Relevant Works cited above:
  1. "Marshall (Richard) & Olson (Eric) - Eric T. Olson: The Philosopher with No Hands", 2014, External Link, Read
  2. "Merricks (Trenton) - Considerations in Favour of Eliminating Us?", 2001, Read = 6%
  3. "Merricks (Trenton) - Objects and Persons", 2001, Book, Read = 7%
  4. "Merricks (Trenton) - Surviving Eliminativism", 2001, Read = 4%
  5. "Olson (Eric) - What Are We? Nihilism", 2007, Write-Up Note⁶, Internal PDF Link, Read
  6. "Olson (Eric) - Why I Have No Hands", 1995, Annotations, External Link, Internal PDF Link, Read
  7. "Unger (Peter) - I Do Not Exist", 1979, Read
  8. "Unger (Peter) - There are no Ordinary Things", 1979
  9. "Unger (Peter) - Why There Are No People", 1979, External Link, Internal PDF Link, Read = 5%
  10. "Van Inwagen (Peter) - Extreme Answers to the Special Composition Question: Nihilism and Universalism", 1990, No Abstract
• For a Page of Links⁷ to this Note, Click here. I’ve added “Eliminitivism” and “No People” as cognates.
• Works on this topic that I’ve actually read⁸, include the following:-
  • Aeon:
    1. "Gertz (Nolen) - Nihilism", 2020, External Link, Internal PDF Link
    2. "Woodward (Sam) - Terrifying vistas of reality", 2024, External Link
  • General:
    1. "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - Review of 'What Are We? A Study in Personal Ontology' by Eric T. Olson", 2008, Write-Up Note⁹, External Link, Internal PDF Link
    2. "Kurtz (Roxanne) - Introduction to Persistence: What’s the Problem?", 2006, Write-Up Note¹⁰, Annotations, Internal PDF Link
    3. "Marshall (Richard) & Olson (Eric) - Eric T. Olson: The Philosopher with No Hands", 2014, External Link
    4. "Olson (Eric) - What Are We? Nihilism", 2007, Write-Up Note¹¹, Internal PDF Link
    5. "Olson (Eric) - What Are We? What Now?", 2007, Write-Up Note¹², Internal PDF Link
    6. "Olson (Eric) - Why I Have No Hands", 1995, Annotations, External Link, Internal PDF Link
    7. "Unger (Peter) - I Do Not Exist", 1979
    8. "Van Inwagen (Peter) - Précis of Material Beings", 1993, Annotations, Internal PDF Link
• A further reading list might start with:-
  • General:
    1. "Liggins (David) - Nihilism without Self-Contradiction", 2008, Internal PDF Link, Read = 11%
    2. "Merricks (Trenton) - Considerations in Favour of Eliminating Us?", 2001, Read = 6%
    3. "Merricks (Trenton) - Considerations in Favour of Eliminativism", 2001, Read = 5%
    4. "Merricks (Trenton) - Epiphenomenalism and Eliminativism", 2001, Read = 8%
    5. "Merricks (Trenton) - Objects and Persons", 2001, Book, Read = 7%
    6. "Merricks (Trenton) - Surviving Eliminativism", 2001, Read = 4%
    7. "Midgley (Mary) - How Real Are You", 2002, Internal PDF Link
    8. "Miller (Kristie) - 'Personal identity' minus the persons", 2013, Internal PDF Link, Read = 6%
    9. "Morton (Adam) - Why There Is No Concept of a Person", 1990, Annotations, No Abstract, Read = 44%
    10. "O'Leary-Hawthorne (John) & Cortens (Andrew) - Towards Ontological Nihilism", 1995, Internal PDF Link, Read = 10%
    11. "Rodriguez-Pereyra (Gonzalo) - Modal Realism and Metaphysical Nihilism", 2004, Internal PDF Link
    12. "Sider (Ted) - Against Parthood", 2013, External Link, Internal PDF Link, Read = 4%
    13. "Sides (Carl Brock) - Mereological Nihilism and the Limits of Paraphrase", 1997, Internal PDF Link
    14. "Sosa (Ernest) - Existential Relativity", 1999, Internal PDF Link, Read = 25%
    15. "Stone (Jim) - Parfit and the Buddha: Why There Are No People", 1988, Internal PDF Link
    16. "Unger (Peter) - Skepticism and Nihilism", 1980, Internal PDF Link
    17. "Unger (Peter) - The Mental Problems of the Many", 2004, External Link, Internal PDF Link, Read = 8%
    18. "Unger (Peter) - There are no Ordinary Things", 1979
    19. "Unger (Peter) - Why There Are No People", 1979, External Link, Internal PDF Link, Read = 5%
    20. "Van Inwagen (Peter) - Extreme Answers to the Special Composition Question: Nihilism and Universalism", 1990, No Abstract
    21. "Van Inwagen (Peter) - Material Beings", 1995, Book, Read = 27%
    22. "Weatherson (Brian) - The Problem of the Many", 2003-14, External Link, Internal PDF Link, Read = 4%
    23. "Williamson (Timothy) - Nihilism", 1994
    24. "Zuboff (Arnold) - Moment Universals and Personal Identity", 1978

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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-holder¹³.

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In-Page Footnotes:

Footnote 2: See the introduction to "Unger (Peter) - The Mental Problems of the Many" (2004) for a recantation.

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Table of the Previous 9 Versions of this Note:

Date	Length	Title
20/09/2022 11:24:00	4279	Nihilism
01/05/2022 18:20:10	3898	Nihilism
15/02/2021 13:40:48	3739	Nihilism
29/09/2020 00:54:43	3024	Nihilism
29/04/2018 11:02:24	5033	Nihilism
14/01/2017 20:18:14	2340	Nihilism
18/12/2010 19:58:05	296	Nihilism
26/11/2007 23:25:26	284	Nihilism
12/08/2007 10:17:46	80	Nihilism

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Note last updated	Reading List for this Topic	Parent Topic
06/07/2023 00:43:12	Nihilism	Person

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Summary of Notes Referenced by This Note

Awaiting Attention (Personal Identity)	Baker - Review - Olson - What Are We?	Kurtz - Persistence (Introduction)	Mereology	Note Links Explanation
Olson - What Are We? Nihilism	Olson - What Are We? What Now?	Plug Note Apologia	Sorites	Thinking Animal Argument
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

Aeon Papers	Artifacts	Baker - Personal Identity Over Time	Baker - Review - Olson - What Are We?	Existence
Individual	Johnston - Human Beings	Olson - What Are We? The Question	Olson - What Are We? What Now?	Ontology
Perdurantism	PID Note, Book & Paper Usage, 2, 3, 4, 5	Sorites	Statue and the Clay	Thesis - Chapter 02 (What are We?), 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
Thesis - Chapter 04 (Basic Metaphysical Issues), 2, 3, 4	Thesis - Chapter 06 (Animalism and Arguments for It)	Thesis - Chapter 07 (The Constitution View and Arguments for It)	Thesis - Current Stance	Thesis - Personal Identity, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9
Thinking Animal Argument	Website Generator Documentation - Functors, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6	What are We?

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)	Personal Identity Over Time	Paper		Yes
Baker (Lynne Rudder)	Review of 'What Are We? A Study in Personal Ontology' by Eric T. Olson	Paper		Yes
Bayne (Tim)	Just a pale blue dot	Paper		Yes
Catterson (Troy)	Introduction to Synthese Special Issue on Personal Identity	Paper		Yes
Dennett (Daniel)	Elbow Room - The Varieties of Free Will Worth Wanting	Book
Gertz (Nolen)	Nihilism	Paper		Yes
Goodman (Charles)	Vaibhāṣika Metaphoricalism	Paper
Hains (Brigid) & Hains (Paul)	Aeon: 2019+	Paper		Yes
Heller (Mark)	Conventional Objects	Paper
Johnston (Mark)	Human Beings	Paper		Yes
Kreplin (Ute)	Meditation under the microscope	Paper		Yes
Kurtz (Roxanne)	Introduction to Persistence: What’s the Problem?	Paper	2	Yes
Liggins (David)	Nihilism without Self-Contradiction	Paper	2
Martin (Raymond)	Review: Mark Siderits: Personal Identity and Buddhist Philosophy: Empty Persons	Paper
Miller (Kristie)	'Personal identity' minus the persons	Paper
O'Leary-Hawthorne (John) & Cortens (Andrew)	Towards Ontological Nihilism	Paper
Olson (Eric)	Is Psychology Relevant To Personal Identity?	Paper		Yes
Olson (Eric)	Persistence	Paper		Yes
Olson (Eric)	The Human Animal: Introduction	Paper	2	Yes
Olson (Eric)	What Are We? Nihilism	Paper	2, 3, 4, 5	Yes
Olson (Eric)	What Are We? The Question	Paper		Yes
Olson (Eric)	What Are We? What Now?	Paper	2	Yes
Parfit (Derek)	On What Matters: Volume Two - Part 6: Normativity	Paper
Rodriguez-Pereyra (Gonzalo)	Modal Realism and Metaphysical Nihilism	Paper	2, 3
Sider (Ted)	Against Parthood	Paper	2, 3
Sider (Ted)	Monism and Statespace Structure	Paper
Sides (Carl Brock)	Mereological Nihilism and the Limits of Paraphrase	Paper
Sosa (Ernest)	Existential Relativity	Paper
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Artifacts	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Chapter 02 (What Are We?)	Paper	2, 3, 4, 5, 6	Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Chapter 04 (Basic Metaphysical Issues)	Paper	2, 3, 4	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		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Current Position	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Existence	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Individual	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Ontology	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Perdurantism	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Personal Identity	Paper	2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Sorites	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Statue and the Clay	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Thinking Animal Argument	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - What Are We?	Paper		Yes
Unger (Peter)	Skepticism and Nihilism	Paper	2
Van Inwagen (Peter)	Material Beings	Book
Van Inwagen (Peter)	Précis of Material Beings	Paper	2, 3, 4	Yes
Velleman (David)	So It Goes	Paper		Yes
Weatherson (Brian)	The Problem of the Many	Paper
Williamson (Timothy)	Nihilism	Paper	2, 3
Williamson (Timothy)	Vagueness	Book	2, 3, 4
Williamson (Timothy)	Vagueness: Preface + Introduction	Paper		Yes
Woodward (Sam)	Terrifying vistas of reality	Paper		Yes

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References & Reading List

Author	Title	Medium	Source	Read?
Bayne (Tim)	Just a pale blue dot	Paper - Referencing	Aeon, 25 April 2025	Yes
Foster (John)	Nihilism and Analytical Behaviorism	Paper - By Subtopic	Foster (John) - The Immaterial Self: Defence of the Cartesian Dualist Conception of the Mind, 1991, Chapter 2	No
Foster (John)	The Immaterial Self: Defence of the Cartesian Dualist Conception of the Mind	Book - By Subtopic (via Paper By Subtopic)	Foster (John) - The Immaterial Self: Defence of the Cartesian Dualist Conception of the Mind	0%
French (Peter), Uehling (Theodore) & Wettstein (Howard)	Midwest Studies in Philosophy (Vol IV, 1979) - Metaphysics	Book - Cited (via Paper Cited)	Bibliographical details to be supplied	1%
Gertz (Nolen)	Nihilism	Paper - Cited	Aeon, 27 February 2020	Yes
Goodman (Charles)	Vaibhāṣika Metaphoricalism	Paper - By Subtopic	Philosophy East and West, Vol. 55, No. 3 (Jul., 2005), pp. 377-393	8%
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: Follow-up Boxes	Book - Referencing (via Paper Referencing)	Bibliographical details to be supplied	100%
Liggins (David)	Nihilism without Self-Contradiction	Paper - Cited	Philosophy 83 supplement 62 (2008), 177-196 (special issue on Being: Developments in Contemporary Metaphysics)	11%
MacDonald (Graham)	Perception & Identity - Essays Presented to A J Ayer with His Replies	Book - Cited (via Paper Cited)	Bibliographical details to be supplied	1%
Marshall (Richard)	Philosophy at 3:AM: Questions and Answers with 25 Top Philosophers	Book - Cited (via Paper Cited)	Bibliographical details to be supplied	37%
Marshall (Richard) & Olson (Eric)	Eric T. Olson: The Philosopher with No Hands	Paper - Cited	Marshall (Richard) - Philosophy at 3:AM: Questions and Answers with 25 Top Philosophers	Yes
Merricks (Trenton)	Considerations in Favour of Eliminating Us?	Paper - Cited	Merricks - Objects and Persons, 2001, Chapter 5	6%
Merricks (Trenton)	Considerations in Favour of Eliminativism	Paper - By Subtopic	Merricks - Objects and Persons, 2001, Chapter 2	5%
Merricks (Trenton)	Epiphenomenalism and Eliminativism	Paper - By Subtopic	Merricks - Objects and Persons, 2001, Chapter 3	8%
Merricks (Trenton)	Objects and Persons	Book - Cited	Merricks (Trenton) - Objects and Persons	7%
Merricks (Trenton)	Surviving Eliminativism	Paper - Cited	Merricks - Objects and Persons, 2001, Chapter 4	4%
Metzinger (Thomas)	Being No One: The Self-Model Theory of Subjectivity	Book - By Subtopic	Metzinger (Thomas) - Being No One: The Self-Model Theory of Subjectivity	1%
Metzinger (Thomas)	The Ego Tunnel: The Science of the Mind and the Myth of the Self	Book - By Subtopic	Metzinger (Thomas) - The Ego Tunnel: The Science of the Mind and the Myth of the Self	1%
Miller (Kristie)	'Personal identity' minus the persons	Paper - By Subtopic	Philosophical Studies: Vol. 166, Supplement 1 (December 2013), pp. S91-S109	6%
Morton (Adam)	Why There Is No Concept of a Person	Paper - By Subtopic		44%
Olson (Eric)	Papers on Identity Boxes: Vol 13 (Olson)	Book - Cited (via Paper Cited)	Bibliographical details to be supplied	16%
Olson (Eric)	What are We? A Study of Personal Ontology	Book - Cited (via Paper Cited)	Bibliographical details to be supplied	Yes
Olson (Eric)	What are We? A Study of Personal Ontology	Book - Referencing (via Paper Referencing)	Bibliographical details to be supplied	Yes
Olson (Eric)	What Are We? Nihilism	Paper - Cited	What Are We? A Study in Personal Ontology, Chapter 8 (November 2007: Oxford University Press.)	Yes
Olson (Eric)	What Are We? The Question	Paper - Referencing	What Are We? A Study in Personal Ontology, Chapter 1 (November 2007: Oxford University Press.)	Yes
Olson (Eric)	What Are We? What Now?	Paper - Referencing	What Are We? A Study in Personal Ontology, Chapter 9 (November 2007: Oxford University Press.)	Yes
Olson (Eric)	Why I Have No Hands	Paper - Cited	Theoria 61 (1995): 182-197	Yes
Stone (Jim)	Parfit and the Buddha: Why There Are No People	Paper - By Subtopic	Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 48 (1988) pp. 519-532	No
Thomasson (Amie L.)	Metaphysical Arguments against Ordinary Objects	Paper - By Subtopic	Philosophical Quarterly (1950-), Vol. 56, No. 224 (Jul., 2006), pp. 340-359	6%
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Nihilism	Paper - By Subtopic		Yes
Unger (Peter)	I Do Not Exist	Paper - Cited	MacDonald - Perception & Identity - Essays Presented to A J Ayer with His Replies, 1979	Yes
Unger (Peter)	The Mental Problems of the Many	Paper - Cited	Oxford Studies in Metaphysics, Vol.1 (2004): 195-222	8%
Unger (Peter)	The Problem of the Many	Paper - By Subtopic	Midwest Studies in Philosophy V, 1980, pp. 411-67	6%
Unger (Peter)	There are no Ordinary Things	Paper - Cited	Synthese 71, 1979, pp. 117-154	No
Unger (Peter)	Why There Are No People	Paper - Cited	Midwest Studies in Philosophy (Vol IV) - Metaphysics, 1979	5%
Van Inwagen (Peter)	Extreme Answers to the Special Composition Question: Nihilism and Universalism	Paper - Cited	Van Inwagen - Material Beings; 1990; Ch. 8	No
Van Inwagen (Peter)	Material Beings	Book - Cited	Van Inwagen (Peter) - Material Beings	27%
Weatherson (Brian)	The Problem of the Many	Paper - By Subtopic	Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy, 2003-14	4%
Williamson (Timothy)	Nihilism	Paper - By Subtopic	Williamson (Timothy) - Vagueness, Chapter 6	No
Williamson (Timothy)	Vagueness	Book - By Subtopic (via Paper By Subtopic)	Williamson (Timothy) - Vagueness	4%
Woodward (Sam)	Terrifying vistas of reality	Paper - Cited	Aeon, 25 March 2024	Yes
Zuboff (Arnold)	Moment Universals and Personal Identity	Paper - By Subtopic	Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society 52, 1978, 141-55	No

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Text Colour Conventions

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

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