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Personal Identity

Reduplication Objections

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

Plug Note¹

• Thesis Text:
  1. The problem of reduplication relates to a systematic problem in the logic of identity², that of fission³, whether actual or potential.
  2. I have another Note in this general area, that of Replication⁴. Is this the same issue? The latter Note will deal with what Replication is and how it differs from Identity, while this Note will deal with the problems it causes for potential solutions to the problem of Personal Identity.
  3. So, this Note is about an objection. An objection to what?
  4. The case is probably best put in "Seibt (Johanna) - Fission, Sameness, and Survival: Parfit’s Branch Line Argument Revisited". Reduplication objections arise in various Thought Experiments⁵, especially:-
     1. Teletransportation⁶: you couldn’t survive because either the information⁷ can be used multiple times, or the original “you” might be left behind (the “Branch-line” case).
     2. Brain-state Transfers⁸: you cannot be the mental contents⁹ of your brain¹⁰, because they could be copied onto multiple “wiped” recipient-brains. This might seem to defeat the Psychological View¹¹.
     3. Cerebrum Transplants¹²: You cannot be a brain¹³, because idempotent cerebra¹⁴ (or maybe half-brains) could be donated to two recipients, who would have equal claims to be your closest psychological continuer¹⁵.
        
  5. These responses to the TEs¹⁶ argue that we would not survive¹⁷ certain the vicissitudes in question. The force of these objections rests on the logic¹⁸ of identity as classically understood.
  6. Joanna Seibt herself thinks that Reduplication objections – in particular the “Branch Line cases” – “entail according to Parfit¹⁹ a conceptual distinction between the notion of identity²⁰ and the notion of survival²¹”.
  7. As noted elsewhere, I hope this is a misunderstanding of Parfit. What he ought to be saying – and probably is – is that we can have most of what we want²² from survival without surviving²³. Because you - that very individual²⁴ – don’t survive unless you are the very same individual pre- and post- whatever contingency is under consideration.
  8. Reduplication objections also arise in the abortion²⁵ debate, and the argument over when “we” – assumed to be human animals²⁶ – begin²⁷. The reduplication objection implies that this cannot be before the possibility of twinning²⁸ is past.
  9. All these Reduplication objections are – I think – fully answered by adopting Perdurantism²⁹, though there might be other objections to the stances adopted.

References

• Relevant Works cited above:
  1. "Seibt (Johanna) - Fission, Sameness, and Survival: Parfit’s Branch Line Argument Revisited", 2000, Internal PDF Link
• For a Page of Links³⁰ to this Note, Click here.
• Works on this topic that I’ve actually read³¹, include the following:-
  • General:
    1. "Ehring (Douglas) - Personal Identity and Time Travel", 1987, Annotations, Internal PDF Link
    2. "Marshall (Richard) & Olson (Eric) - Eric T. Olson: The Philosopher with No Hands", 2014, External Link
    3. "Noonan (Harold) - The Reduplication Problem", 2003, Annotations
    4. "Olson (Eric) - Psychology and Personal Identity", 1999
    5. "Shoemaker (David) - Personal Identity and Immortality", 2009
    6. "Thomas (Janice L.) - Psychological continuity", 2000
    7. "Thomas (Janice L.) - What matters for survival and the logical possibility of resurrection", 2000
• I don’t have a categorised reading list for this Note, and don’t really have a study-list to hand. Reading will be covered by the related Notes. However, a “starter pack₃₂” might be:-:-
  • General:
    1. "Berglund (Stefan) - Problems of Reductive Personalism", 1995
    2. "Perry (John) - Williams on The Self and the Future", 2002
    3. "Seibt (Johanna) - Fission, Sameness, and Survival: Parfit’s Branch Line Argument Revisited", 2000, Internal PDF Link
    4. "Wilkerson (T.E.) - Minds", 1974

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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-holder³³.

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In-Page Footnotes:

Footnote 32:

• Arrived at by a rather slavish trawl through my database using the key-word “reduplication”!

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Table of the Previous 7 Versions of this Note:

Date	Length	Title
20/09/2022 11:24:00	4092	Reduplication Objections
12/05/2022 21:27:22	3711	Reduplication Objections
17/02/2021 01:17:46	3486	Reduplication Objections
30/09/2020 16:01:55	3304	Reduplication Objections
28/10/2018 18:08:38	5454	Reduplication Objections
02/08/2015 20:54:14	3305	Reduplication Objections
02/07/2013 14:12:29	89	Reduplication Objections

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Note last updated	Reading List for this Topic	Parent Topic
06/07/2023 00:43:12	None available	Logic of Identity

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Summary of Notes Referenced by This Note

Abortion	Awaiting Attention (Personal Identity)	Brain	Brain State Transfer	Brain Transplants
Cerebrum	Closest Continuer	Fission	Human Animals	Individual
Information	Logic of Identity	Mind	Note Links Explanation	Origins
Parfit	Perdurantism	Plug Note Apologia	Psychological View	Replication
Survival	Teletransportation	Thought Experiments	Twinning	What Matters
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 - Personal Identity Over Time, 2	Duplication, 2	Lewis	Olson - Immanent Causation and Life After Death	Olson - What Are We? The Question
Perdurantism	PID Note, Book & Paper Usage, 2, 3	Psychological Continuity	Psychological Criterion	Replication
Thesis - Chapter 01 (Introduction)	Thesis - Chapter 03 (What is a Person?)	Thesis - Chapter 05 (Persistence and Time)	Thesis - Chapter 10 (Thought Experiments), 2, 3, 4, 5, 6	Thesis - Current Stance
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?
Aeon	Video - What science tells us about the afterlife	Paper		Yes
Baker (Lynne Rudder)	Personal Identity Over Time	Paper	2	Yes
Berglund (Stefan)	Problems of Reductive Personalism	Paper
Blatti (Stephan)	Review of 'The Rise and Fall of Soul and Self', by Raymond Martin and John Barresi	Paper		Yes
Clark (Andy) & Kuhn (Robert Lawrence)	Aeon: Video - Andy Clark - Virtual immortality	Paper		Yes
Ehring (Douglas)	Personal Identity and Time Travel	Paper		Yes
Feinberg (Todd)	Missing Pieces; Familiar Places	Paper
Marshall (Richard) & Olson (Eric)	Eric T. Olson: The Philosopher with No Hands	Paper		Yes
Noonan (Harold)	An Initial Survey	Paper		Yes
Noonan (Harold)	The Possibility of Reincarnation	Paper	2, 3
Olson (Eric)	Immanent Causation and Life After Death	Paper		Yes
Olson (Eric)	Psychology and Personal Identity	Paper	2, 3, 4, 5	Yes
Olson (Eric)	The Human Animal: Introduction	Paper		Yes
Olson (Eric)	What Are We? The Question	Paper		Yes
Perry (John)	Williams on The Self and the Future	Paper
Science Unbound	Teleporters: The Death Machines You Don't Want	Paper		Yes
Seibt (Johanna)	Fission, Sameness, and Survival: Parfit’s Branch Line Argument Revisited	Paper	2
Shipley (G.J.)	Review of Andy Clark's 'Natural-Born Cyborgs'	Paper		Yes
Shoemaker (David)	Personal Identity and Immortality	Paper	2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10	Yes
Strawson (Peter)	Review of Minds, Brains and People by T. E. Wilkerson	Paper		Yes
Thomas (Janice L.)	Psychological continuity	Paper	2	Yes
Thomas (Janice L.)	What matters for survival and the logical possibility of resurrection	Paper	2, 3, 4	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 03 (What is a Person?)	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Chapter 05 (Persistence and Time)	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Chapter 10 (Thought Experiments)	Paper	2, 3, 4, 5, 6	Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Current Position	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Duplication	Paper	2	Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Lewis	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Perdurantism	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Psychological Continuity	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Psychological Criterion	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Replication	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Unity of the Person	Paper		Yes
Van Inwagen (Peter)	Materialism and the Psychological-continuity Account of Personal Identity	Paper	2	Yes
Wilkerson (T.E.)	Minds	Paper

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References & Reading List

Author	Title	Medium	Source	Read?
Baker (Lynne Rudder)	Personal Identity Over Time	Paper - Referencing	Baker (Lynne) - Persons and Bodies, Chapter 5, pp. 118-146	Yes
Baker (Lynne Rudder)	Persons and Bodies: A Constitution View	Book - Referencing (via Paper Referencing)	Bibliographical details to be supplied	Yes
Berglund (Stefan)	Human and Personal Identity	Book - Cited (via Paper Cited)	Bibliographical details to be supplied	1%
Berglund (Stefan)	Problems of Reductive Personalism	Paper - Cited	Berglund - Human and Personal Identity (PhD Dissertation, Lund University), Chapter 6, 1995, pp. 128-158	No
Ehring (Douglas)	Personal Identity and Time Travel	Paper - Cited	Philosophical Studies, Vol. 52, No. 3 (Nov., 1987), pp. 427-433	Yes
Ehring (Douglas)	Personal Identity and Time Travel	Paper - Referencing	Philosophical Studies, Vol. 52, No. 3 (Nov., 1987), pp. 427-433	Yes
Gasser (Georg), Ed.	Personal Identity and Resurrection: How Do We Survive Our Death?	Book - Referencing (via Paper Referencing)	Bibliographical details to be supplied	96%
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
Martin (Michael G.F.), Ed.	Mind - 113/450 (April 2004)	Book - Referencing (via Paper Referencing)	Bibliographical details to be supplied	6%
Noonan (Harold)	Personal Identity	Book - Cited (via Paper Cited)	Bibliographical details to be supplied	Yes
Noonan (Harold)	The Reduplication Problem	Paper - Cited	Noonan - Personal Identity, 2003, Chapter 7	Yes
Olson (Eric)	Immanent Causation and Life After Death	Paper - Referencing	Gasser (Georg) - Personal Identity and Resurrection: How Do We Survive Our Death? 2010	Yes
Olson (Eric)	Psychology and Personal Identity	Paper - Cited	The Human Animal, September 1999, Chapter 1, pp. 7-21	Yes
Olson (Eric)	Psychology and Personal Identity	Paper - Referencing	The Human Animal, September 1999, Chapter 1, pp. 7-21	Yes
Olson (Eric)	The Human Animal - Personal Identity Without Psychology	Book - Cited (via Paper Cited)	Bibliographical details to be supplied	Yes
Olson (Eric)	The Human Animal - Personal Identity Without Psychology	Book - Referencing (via Paper Referencing)	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? The Question	Paper - Referencing	What Are We? A Study in Personal Ontology, Chapter 1 (November 2007: Oxford University Press.)	Yes
Perry (John)	Identity, Personal Identity and the Self	Book - Cited (via Paper Cited)	Bibliographical details to be supplied	3%
Perry (John)	Williams on The Self and the Future	Paper - Cited	Perry - Identity, Personal Identity and the Self, 2002, Chapter 6	No
Science Unbound	Teleporters: The Death Machines You Don't Want	Paper - Referencing	YouTube, 02 October 2022	Yes
Seibt (Johanna)	Fission, Sameness, and Survival: Parfit’s Branch Line Argument Revisited	Paper - Cited	Metaphysica 1.2 (2000), pp. 95-134	No
Shipley (G.J.)	Review of Andy Clark's 'Natural-Born Cyborgs'	Paper - Referencing	Mind - 113/450 (April 2004)	Yes
Shoemaker (David)	Personal Identity and Ethics: A Brief Introduction	Book - Cited (via Paper Cited)	Bibliographical details to be supplied	Yes
Shoemaker (David)	Personal Identity and Immortality	Paper - Cited	Shoemaker (David) - Personal Identity and Ethics: A Brief Introduction, 2009, Chapter 1	Yes
Thomas (Janice L.)	Mind and Person in the Philosophy of Religion	Book - Cited (via Paper Cited)	Bibliographical details to be supplied	Yes
Thomas (Janice L.)	Psychological continuity	Paper - Cited	Thomas (Janice L.) - Mind and Person in the Philosophy of Religion	Yes
Thomas (Janice L.)	What matters for survival and the logical possibility of resurrection	Paper - Cited	Thomas (Janice L.) - Mind and Person in the Philosophy of Religion	Yes
Wilkerson (T.E.)	Minds	Paper - Cited	Wilkerson - Minds, Brains and People, 1974, Chapter 3	No
Wilkerson (T.E.)	Minds, Brains and People	Book - Cited (via Paper Cited)	Bibliographical details to be supplied	3%

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Text Colour Conventions

1. Blue: Text by me; © Theo Todman, 2024
2. Mauve: Text by correspondent(s) or other author(s); © the author(s)

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