Theo Todman's Web Page - Notes Pages
Personal Identity
Personality
(Text as at 06/07/2023 00:43:12)
Plug Note1
- Thesis Text:
- “She’s not the same person”, means she’s undergone a change of personality. It does not mean that she’s a numerically-different individual. Such is agreed by all but the most extreme (or maybe most consistent) adherents of the psychological view2 of personal identity.
- What are personalities? Are personalities a loose collection of properties and predispositions? Do personalities have persistence conditions, so that saying that someone has or has not changed their personality even makes sense?
- Consider an analogy with weight. It makes sense to ask whether individual x has the same weight at time t1 as at t2. That makes sense because weight is a well-defined property. Of course, for “weight” to be a useful practical concept in this context, there is a tolerance; differences of a few grams don’t count, though those of a few kilograms do. However, “personality” is a much less well-defined concept3, and similar4 ones may count as the same.
- We do allow for our personalities to “evolve” as we mature, so – presumably – we think of them as having persistence conditions of some sort. Too radical a change is shocking to us, leading to the opening quote in this Note.
- I have a separate Note that discusses Multiple Personality Disorder5, some interpretations of which claim that multiple persons inhabit the same human being (as is reflected by the new term “Dissociative Identity Disorder”, though some don’t treat it as a “disorder” at all) while others – more traditionally – think of it as a fragmented personality.
Further Remarks:
- I’ve excluded items on MPD from the reading lists below.
References
- Relevant Works cited above: No items to list.
- For a Page of Links6 to this Note, Click here. Slightly too many links, especially irrelevant ones, for an updating-run, but useful to cherry-pick from.
- Works on this topic that I’ve actually read7, include the following:-
- Aeon:
- "Huston (Matt) - How babies’ and children’s temperament varies around the world", 2024
- "Martinho-Truswell (Antone) - Pigs, parrots and people: the problem of animal personality", 2017, External Link, Internal PDF Link
- "Mireault (Gina) - Born that way", 2023, External Link
- Death & Ethics:
- "Kagan (Shelly) - Personal identity, Part III: Objections to the personality theory", 2007, External Link
- General:
- "Arnold (Keith) - The Subject of Radical Change", 1978, Internal PDF Link
- "Gladwell (Malcolm) - Personality Plus", 2006
- "Kagan (Shelly) - Personal identity, Part II: The body theory and the personality theory", 2007, External Link, Footnote8
- "McGill (V.J.) - Review of Minds, Brains and People by T. E. Wilkerson", 1975, Internal PDF Link
- "Olson (Eric) - Was Jekyll Hyde?", 2003, Annotations, Internal PDF Link
- "Peacocke (Arthur) & Gillett (Grant) - Persons and Personality: Introduction", 1987
- "Wilson (Jack) - Personal Identity Naturalized: Our Bodies, Our Selves", 1999, Annotations
- A further reading list might start with:-
- Death & Ethics:
- "Feldman (Fred) - Death and the Disintegration of Personality", 2015, Read = 6%
- General:
- "Braude (Stephen) - Persons and Personalities", 1995
- "Gray (Peter) - Personality", 2007
- "Lawrie (R.) - Personality", 1974, Internal PDF Link
- "Lewis (C.S.) - Beyond Personality: The Christian Idea of God", 1944, Book
- "Meincke (Anne Sophie) - Personal Identity Without Personality? Remarks on a Neglected Relation", 2016, Internal PDF Link, Read = 7%
- "Mercer (Jean) - Explaining Personality: Soul Theory versus Behavior Genetics", 2015
- "Nuttall (Anthony) - Personality and Poetry", 1987
- "Peacocke (Arthur) & Gillett (Grant) - Persons and Personality: A Contemporary Inquiry", 1987, Book, Read = 14%
- "Rorty (Amélie Oksenberg) - Persons and Personae", 1988, Read = 11%
- "Schechtman (Marya) - Personality and Persistence: The Many Faces of Personal Survival", 2004, Internal PDF Link
- "Storr (Anthony) - The Integrity of the Personality", 1974, Book
- 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:-
- Read: No items to list.
- Further Reading: No items to list.
- This is mostly a place-holder9.
In-Page Footnotes:
Footnote 8:
- This, and the follow-up lecture, are interesting for equating the Psychological View of personal identity with a so-called “personality view”, which makes it sound rather silly.
Table of the Previous 9 Versions of this Note:
Summary of Notes Referenced by This Note
To access information, click on one of the links in the table above.
Summary of Notes Citing This Note
| Aeon Papers, 2, 3, 4 |
Dicephalus |
Essentialism |
Existence |
Holes & Smiles |
| Johnston - Human Beings |
Methuselah |
Multiple Personality Disorder, 2 |
Narrative Identity |
Olson - What Are We? Animals |
| Olson - What Are We? The Question |
PID Note, Book & Paper Usage, 2, 3 |
Relative Identity, 2 |
Self |
Thesis - Chapter 01 (Introduction) |
| Thesis - Chapter 02 (What are We?), 2 |
Thesis - Chapter 03 (What is a Person?), 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 |
Thesis - Chapter 04 (Basic Metaphysical Issues), 2 |
Thesis - Chapter 07 (The Constitution View and Arguments for It) |
Thesis - Chapter 08 (Arguments against Animalism) |
| Thesis - Chapter 09 (Arguments against the Constitution View) |
Thesis - Chapter 10 (Thought Experiments), 2 |
Thesis - Current Stance |
Thesis - Personal Identity, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 |
Unity of the Person |
| Website Generator Documentation - Functors, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 |
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|
|
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To access information, click on one of the links in the table above.
Authors, Books & Papers Citing this Note
| Author |
Title |
Medium |
Extra Links |
Read? |
| Arnold (Keith) |
The Subject of Radical Change |
Paper  |
2, 3 |
Yes |
| Hains (Brigid) & Hains (Paul) |
Aeon: 2019+ |
Paper  |
2, 3, 4 |
Yes |
| Huston (Matt) |
How babies’ and children’s temperament varies around the world |
Paper |
|
Yes |
| Johnston (Mark) |
Human Beings |
Paper |
|
Yes |
| Lawrie (R.) |
Personality |
Paper |
|
|
| Love (Shayla) |
How to connect with your future self |
Paper |
|
Yes |
| Meincke (Anne Sophie) |
Personal Identity Without Personality? Remarks on a Neglected Relation |
Paper |
|
|
| Mercer (Jean) |
Explaining Personality: Soul Theory versus Behavior Genetics |
Paper |
|
|
| Olson (Eric) |
Was Jekyll Hyde? |
Paper |
|
Yes |
| Olson (Eric) |
What Are We? Animals |
Paper |
|
Yes |
| Olson (Eric) |
What Are We? The Question |
Paper |
|
Yes |
| Schechtman (Marya) |
Personality and Persistence: The Many Faces of Personal Survival |
Paper |
|
|
| Schwenkler (John) |
What does it take for someone to become a ‘different person’? |
Paper |
|
Yes |
| Smith (Barry C.), Broks (Paul), Kennedy (A.L.) & Evans (Jules) |
Audio: What Does It Mean to Be Me? |
Paper |
|
Yes |
| Thompson (Jon W.) |
Personal Identity and Resurrection: Early Modern Philosophical Perspectives |
Paper |
|
Yes |
| Todman (Theo) |
Thesis - Chapter 01 (Introduction) |
Paper |
|
Yes |
| Todman (Theo) |
Thesis - Chapter 02 (What Are We?) |
Paper |
2 |
Yes |
| Todman (Theo) |
Thesis - Chapter 03 (What is a Person?) |
Paper |
2, 3, 4, 5, 6 |
Yes |
| Todman (Theo) |
Thesis - Chapter 04 (Basic Metaphysical Issues) |
Paper |
2 |
Yes |
| Todman (Theo) |
Thesis - Chapter 07 (The Constitution View and Arguments for It) |
Paper |
|
Yes |
| Todman (Theo) |
Thesis - Chapter 08 (Arguments against Animalism) |
Paper |
|
Yes |
| Todman (Theo) |
Thesis - Chapter 09 (Arguments against the Constitution View) |
Paper |
|
Yes |
| Todman (Theo) |
Thesis - Chapter 10 (Thought Experiments) |
Paper |
2 |
Yes |
| Todman (Theo) |
Thesis - Current Position |
Paper |
|
Yes |
| Todman (Theo) |
Thesis - Dicephalus |
Paper |
|
Yes |
| Todman (Theo) |
Thesis - Essentialism |
Paper |
|
Yes |
| Todman (Theo) |
Thesis - Existence |
Paper |
|
Yes |
| Todman (Theo) |
Thesis - Holes & Smiles |
Paper |
|
Yes |
| Todman (Theo) |
Thesis - Methuselah |
Paper |
|
Yes |
| Todman (Theo) |
Thesis - Multiple Personality Disorder |
Paper |
2 |
Yes |
| Todman (Theo) |
Thesis - Narrative Identity |
Paper |
|
Yes |
| Todman (Theo) |
Thesis - Personal Identity |
Paper |
2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 |
|
| Todman (Theo) |
Thesis - Relative Identity |
Paper |
2 |
Yes |
| Todman (Theo) |
Thesis - Self |
Paper |
|
Yes |
| Todman (Theo) |
Thesis - Unity of the Person |
Paper |
|
Yes |
| Wilson (Jack) |
Personal Identity Naturalized: Our Bodies, Our Selves |
Paper |
|
Yes |
References & Reading List
| Author |
Title |
Medium |
Source |
Read? |
| Bradley (Ben), Feldman (Fred) & Johansson (Jens) |
The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Death |
Book - Cited (via Paper Cited)  |
Bibliographical details to be supplied |
7% |
| Feldman (Fred) |
Death and the Disintegration of Personality |
Paper - Cited |
Bradley (Ben), Feldman (Fred) & Johansson (Jens) - The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Death |
6% |
| Gosling (Samuel D.) |
Personality in Non-human Animals |
Paper - By Subtopic |
Social and Personality Psychology Compass 2/2 (2008): 985–1001 |
7% |
| Hains (Brigid) & Hains (Paul) |
Aeon: Follow-up Boxes |
Book - By Subtopic (via Paper By Subtopic) |
Hains (Brigid) & Hains (Paul) - Aeon: Follow-up Boxes |
100% |
| Hains (Brigid) & Hains (Paul) |
Aeon: L-P |
Book - By Subtopic (via Paper By Subtopic) |
Hains (Brigid) & Hains (Paul) - Aeon: L-P |
33% |
| Huston (Matt) |
How babies’ and children’s temperament varies around the world |
Paper - Cited |
Aeon, 21 May 2024 |
Yes |
| Knobe (Joshua) |
Personal Identity and Dual Character Concepts |
Paper - By Subtopic |
Tobia, K. (Ed.). Experimental Philosophy of Identity and the Self, London, Bloomsbury, 25 Aug 2022 |
Yes |
| Lawrie (R.) |
Personality |
Paper - By Subtopic |
Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 1974, 307-330 |
No |
| Lewis (C.S.) |
Beyond Personality: The Christian Idea of God |
Book - Cited |
Lewis (C.S.) - Beyond Personality: The Christian Idea of God |
No |
| Lewis (M.M.) |
Language Thought and Personality in Infancy and Childhood |
Book - Referenced |
Lewis (M.M.) - Language Thought and Personality in Infancy and Childhood |
No |
| Martinho-Truswell (Antone) |
Pigs, parrots and people: the problem of animal personality |
Paper - By Subtopic |
Aeon, 18 April, 2017 |
Yes |
| Meincke (Anne Sophie) |
Personal Identity Without Personality? Remarks on a Neglected Relation |
Paper - By Subtopic |
Philosophische Yahrbuch, 114-145, 2016 |
7% |
| Meincke (Anne Sophie) |
Personality and Personal Identity - Challenging a Substance Theoretical Presumption |
Paper - By Subtopic |
Persönlichkeit. Neurowissenschaftliche und neurophilosophische Fragestellungen, ed. by O. Friedrich & M. Zichy, Münster: Mentis, 2014, pp. 163-187 |
10% |
| Mireault (Gina) |
Born that way |
Paper - By Subtopic |
Aeon, 17 January 2023 |
Yes |
| Peacocke (Arthur) & Gillett (Grant) |
Persons and Personality: A Contemporary Inquiry |
Book - By Subtopic (via Paper By Subtopic) |
Peacocke (Arthur) & Gillett (Grant) - Persons and Personality: A Contemporary Inquiry |
14% |
| Peacocke (Arthur) & Gillett (Grant) |
Persons and Personality: Introduction |
Paper - By Subtopic |
Peacocke & Gillett - Persons and Personality: A Contemporary Inquiry, 1987, Chapter 1 |
Yes |
| Rorty (Amélie Oksenberg) |
Mind in Action - Essays in the Philosophy of Mind |
Book - By Subtopic (via Paper By Subtopic) |
Rorty (Amélie Oksenberg) - Mind in Action - Essays in the Philosophy of Mind |
2% |
| Rorty (Amélie Oksenberg) |
Persons and Personae |
Paper - By Subtopic |
Rorty (Amelie) - Mind in Action - Essays in the Philosophy of Mind |
11% |
| Schwenkler (John) |
What does it take for someone to become a ‘different person’? |
Paper - By Subtopic |
Aeon, 17 May 2022 |
Yes |
| Storr (Anthony) |
The Integrity of the Personality |
Book - By Subtopic |
Storr (Anthony) - The Integrity of the Personality |
No |
| Todman (Theo) |
Thesis - Personality |
Paper - By Subtopic |
|
Yes |
Text Colour Conventions
- Blue: Text by me; © Theo Todman, 2025