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Personal Identity

Personality

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

Plug Note¹

• Thesis Text:
  1. “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.
  2. 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?
  3. 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.
  4. 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 above.
  5. I have a separate discussion later on of 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.

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  Further Remarks:
  1. 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:
    1. "Huston (Matt) - How babies’ and children’s temperament varies around the world", 2024, External Link
    2. "Martinho-Truswell (Antone) - Pigs, parrots and people: the problem of animal personality", 2017, External Link, Internal PDF Link
    3. "May (Joshua) - Why we should think of neurodiversity like we do personality", 2025, External Link
    4. "Mireault (Gina) - Born that way", 2023, External Link
  • Death & Ethics:
    1. "Kagan (Shelly) - Personal identity, Part III: Objections to the personality theory", 2007, External Link
  • General:
    1. "Arnold (Keith) - The Subject of Radical Change", 1978, Internal PDF Link
    2. "Gladwell (Malcolm) - Personality Plus", 2006
    3. "Kagan (Shelly) - Personal identity, Part II: The body theory and the personality theory", 2007, External Link, Footnote₈
    4. "McGill (V.J.) - Review of Minds, Brains and People by T. E. Wilkerson", 1975, Internal PDF Link
    5. "Olson (Eric) - Was Jekyll Hyde?", 2003, Annotations, Internal PDF Link
    6. "Peacocke (Arthur) & Gillett (Grant) - Persons and Personality: Introduction", 1987
    7. "Wilson (Jack) - Personal Identity Naturalized: Our Bodies, Our Selves", 1999, Annotations
• A further reading list might start with:-
  • Death & Ethics:
    1. "Feldman (Fred) - Death and the Disintegration of Personality", 2015, Read = 6%
  • General:
    1. "Braude (Stephen) - Persons and Personalities", 1995
    2. "Gray (Peter) - Personality", 2007
    3. "Lawrie (R.) - Personality", 1974, Internal PDF Link
    4. "Lewis (C.S.) - Beyond Personality: The Christian Idea of God", 1944, Book
    5. "Meincke (Anne Sophie) - Personal Identity Without Personality? Remarks on a Neglected Relation", 2016, Internal PDF Link, Read = 7%
    6. "Mercer (Jean) - Explaining Personality: Soul Theory versus Behavior Genetics", 2015
    7. "Nuttall (Anthony) - Personality and Poetry", 1987
    8. "Peacocke (Arthur) & Gillett (Grant) - Persons and Personality: A Contemporary Inquiry", 1987, Book, Read = 14%
    9. "Rorty (Amélie Oksenberg) - Persons and Personae", 1988, Read = 11%
    10. "Schechtman (Marya) - Personality and Persistence: The Many Faces of Personal Survival", 2004, Internal PDF Link
    11. "Storr (Anthony) - The Integrity of the Personality", 1974, 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-holder⁹.

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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.

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Table of the Previous 9 Versions of this Note:

Date	Length	Title
20/09/2022 11:24:00	3641	Personality
01/05/2022 18:20:10	3260	Personality
16/02/2021 01:00:29	3093	Personality
01/06/2020 13:40:48	2704	Personality
14/07/2019 18:05:46	678	Personality
11/03/2018 20:19:41	1978	Personality
18/12/2010 19:58:05	450	Personality
26/11/2007 23:25:26	437	Personality
12/08/2007 10:17:46	80	Personality

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

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Summary of Notes Referenced by This Note

Awaiting Attention (Personal Identity)	Concepts	Multiple Personality Disorder	Note Links Explanation	Plug Note Apologia
Psychological View	Similarity	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, 2, 3	Clinical Observations	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, 3	Thesis - Chapter 12 (Conclusion)	Thesis - Current Stance
Thesis - Personal Identity, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15	Unity of the Person	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?
Arnold (Keith)	The Subject of Radical Change	Paper	2, 3	Yes
Hains (Brigid) & Hains (Paul)	Aeon: 2019+	Paper	2, 3	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
May (Joshua)	Why we should think of neurodiversity like we do personality	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, 3	Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Clinical Observations	Paper		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, 14	Yes
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

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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
May (Joshua)	Why we should think of neurodiversity like we do personality	Paper - By Subtopic	Aeon, 10 April 2025	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
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? Animals	Paper - Referencing	What Are We? A Study in Personal Ontology, Chapter 2 (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
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 - Chapter 10 (Thought Experiments)	Paper - Referencing		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Clinical Observations	Paper - Referencing		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Personal Identity	Paper - Referencing		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Personality	Paper - By Subtopic		Yes

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Text Colour Conventions

1. Blue: Text by me; © Theo Todman, 2026

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