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Personal Identity

Wantons

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

Plug Note¹

• Thesis Text:
  1. “Wanton” is a term of art introduced in "Frankfurt (Harry) - Freedom of the Will and the Concept of a Person", of which I’ve written a Review².
  2. According to Frankfurt, wantons are human beings³ who aren’t moral persons, because they lack second order desires (they don’t want to want to do x or be morally like y).
  3. Most human beings (the persons⁴) care what their moral likes and dislikes are, and want to reform or improve their moral sensibilities and characters. They care about their moral state. Wantons don’t; they are happy as they are (and not because they are moral saints).
  4. While the term “wanton” is a useful one, I think excluding wantons from falling under the concept⁵ “person” is making that concept too narrow. Frankfurt may have hijacked the term wanton, but he has left no important semantic gap in so doing (he has probably done no more than perform a service by clarifying the term).
  5. However, in restricting the term “person” to non-wantons, he is (I would claim) invoking a semantic shift that would then require a new term, PERSON-Minus, to cover those wanton human beings who enjoy the non-moral properties that Frankfurt-persons enjoy. Maybe they would be persons of reduced degree⁶?

References

• Relevant Works cited above:
  1. "Frankfurt (Harry) - Freedom of the Will and the Concept of a Person", 1991, Write-Up Note⁷, Internal PDF Link, Read
• For a page of Links⁸ to this Note, Click here. This revealed precious little in my database, and what little there was, was mostly irrelevant, and has been suppressed.
• Works on this topic that I’ve actually read⁹, include the following:-
  • General:
    1. "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - When Do Persons Begin and End?", 2005, Annotations, External Link, Internal PDF Link, Footnote₁₀
    2. "Dennett (Daniel) - Conditions of Personhood", 1997, Write-Up Note¹¹, Annotations
    3. "Frankfurt (Harry) - Freedom of the Will and the Concept of a Person", 1991, Write-Up Note¹², Internal PDF Link
    4. "Snowdon (Paul) - The Self and Personal Identity", 2009, Write-Up Note¹³
• A further reading list might start with:-
  • General:
    1. "Velleman (David) - The Way of the Wanton", 2005, External Link, Internal PDF Link, Read = 17%

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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-holder¹⁴.

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In-Page Footnotes:

Footnote 10:

• Baker doesn’t actually mention wantons, but might have!
• The same goes for the paper by Snowdon.

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Table of the Previous 10 Versions of this Note:

Date	Length	Title
20/09/2022 11:24:00	2702	Wantons
01/05/2022 18:20:10	2321	Wantons
19/02/2021 00:23:02	2134	Wantons
14/07/2019 18:05:46	1831	Wantons
12/05/2018 21:00:00	3942	Wantons
11/03/2018 20:19:41	2779	Wantons
18/12/2010 19:58:05	1164	Wantons
26/11/2007 23:25:26	1068	Wantons
21/10/2007 09:48:58	1064	Wantons
12/08/2007 10:17:46	80	Wantons

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Note last updated	Reading List for this Topic	Parent Topic
06/07/2023 00:43:12	Wantons	Forensic Property

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Summary of Notes Referenced by This Note

Awaiting Attention (Personal Identity)	Concepts	Daniel Dennett – Conditions of Personhood	Degrees of Personhood	Frankfurt - Freedom of the Will and the Concept of a Person
Human Beings	Note Links Explanation	Person	Plug Note Apologia	Snowdon - The Self and Personal Identity
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	Baker - The Importance Of Being a Person	Daniel Dennett – Conditions of Personhood, 2	Degrees of Personhood	Forensic Property
Frankfurt - Freedom of the Will and the Concept of a Person, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16	Noonan - Persons and Bodies - Response	PID Note, Book & Paper Usage, 2, 3	Psychopathology	Thesis - Chapter 03 (What is a Person?), 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
Thesis - Current Stance	Thesis - Personal Identity, 2, 3	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?
Baggini (Julian)	How to think about free will	Paper		Yes
Baker (Lynne Rudder)	Materialism with a Human Face	Paper		Yes
Baker (Lynne Rudder)	The Importance Of Being a Person	Paper		Yes
Baker (Lynne Rudder)	When Do Persons Begin and End?	Paper		Yes
Dennett (Daniel)	Conditions of Personhood	Paper	2	Yes
Frankfurt (Harry)	Freedom of the Will and the Concept of a Person	Paper	2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16	Yes
Love (Shayla)	You can want things you don’t like and like things you don’t want	Paper		Yes
Nanay (Bence)	Catching Desires	Paper		Yes
Noonan (Harold)	Arguments Against Animalism: Comments on L.R.Baker 'Persons & Bodies'	Paper		Yes
Snowdon (Paul)	The Self and Personal Identity	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Chapter 03 (What is a Person?)	Paper	2, 3, 4, 5, 6	Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Current Position	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Degrees of Personhood	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Forensic Property	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Personal Identity	Paper	2, 3
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Psychopathology	Paper		Yes
Velleman (David)	The Way of the Wanton	Paper	2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
Williams (Bernard)	Morality: Preface	Paper

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References & Reading List

Author	Title	Medium	Source	Read?
Baggini (Julian)	How to think about free will	Paper - Referencing	Aeon, 11 May 2022	Yes
Baker (Lynne Rudder)	Materialism with a Human Face	Paper - Referencing	Corcoran - Soul, Body and Survival, Chapter 10	Yes
Baker (Lynne Rudder)	Persons and Bodies: A Constitution View	Book - Referencing (via Paper Referencing)	Bibliographical details to be supplied	Yes
Baker (Lynne Rudder)	The Importance Of Being a Person	Paper - Referencing	Baker (Lynne) - Persons and Bodies, Chapter 6, pp. 147-163	Yes
Baker (Lynne Rudder)	When Do Persons Begin and End?	Paper - Cited	Distinguished Faculty Lecture, December 5, 2005	Yes
Baker (Lynne Rudder)	When Do Persons Begin and End?	Paper - Referencing	Distinguished Faculty Lecture, December 5, 2005	Yes
Corcoran (Kevin), Ed.	Soul, Body and Survival: Essays on the Metaphysics of Human Persons	Book - Referencing (via Paper Referencing)	Bibliographical details to be supplied	99%
Dennett (Daniel)	Brainstorms - Philosophical Essays on Mind and Psychology	Book - Cited (via Paper Cited)	Bibliographical details to be supplied	43%
Dennett (Daniel)	Conditions of Personhood	Paper - Cited	Dennett - Brainstorms - Philosophical Essays on Mind and Psychology, Chapter 14, 1976	Yes
Frankfurt (Harry)	Freedom of the Will and the Concept of a Person	Paper - Cited	Rosenthal - The Nature of Mind	Yes
Frankfurt (Harry)	Freedom of the Will and the Concept of a Person	Paper - Referencing	Rosenthal - The Nature of Mind	Yes
Hains (Brigid) & Hains (Paul)	Aeon: Follow-up Boxes	Book - Referencing (via Paper Referencing)	Bibliographical details to be supplied	100%
Love (Shayla)	You can want things you don’t like and like things you don’t want	Paper - Referencing	Aeon, 07 May 2024	Yes
Rosenthal (David), Ed.	The Nature of Mind	Book - Cited (via Paper Cited)	Bibliographical details to be supplied	10%
Rosenthal (David), Ed.	The Nature of Mind	Book - Referencing (via Paper Referencing)	Bibliographical details to be supplied	10%
Shand (John)	Central Issues of Philosophy	Book - Cited (via Paper Cited)	Bibliographical details to be supplied	35%
Shand (John)	Central Issues of Philosophy	Book - Referencing (via Paper Referencing)	Bibliographical details to be supplied	35%
Snowdon (Paul)	The Self and Personal Identity	Paper - Cited	Shand (John) - Central Issues of Philosophy, Chapter 9	Yes
Snowdon (Paul)	The Self and Personal Identity	Paper - Referencing	Shand (John) - Central Issues of Philosophy, Chapter 9	Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Wantons	Paper - By Subtopic		Yes
Velleman (David)	The Way of the Wanton	Paper - Cited	2005; Personal Website	17%
Williams (Bernard)	Morality	Book - Referencing (via Paper Referencing)	Bibliographical details to be supplied	Yes
Williams (Bernard)	Morality: Preface	Paper - Referencing	Williams (Bernard) - Morality	No

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Text Colour Conventions

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

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