Theo Todman's Philosophy Research

(Text as at 18/04/2019 18:18:43)

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Research ProposalCurrent StanceThesisCurrent FocusEssays
SupervisionsPersonal Identity NotesWrite-upsPapers ReferencedStatus Reports

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Research Proposal


1.
  • Follow the links on the right for a document that started out as my research proposal for a PhD in philosophy on the subject of Personal Identity, commencing in October 2007, at Birkbeck College, London University. My supervisor was Jennifer Hornsby. In accord with the University regulations, I was initially registered for the MPhil, but expected to upgrade after a year or so. However, I found part-time research unsatisfying, and difficult to fit in with my work commitments, so my attendance at Birkbeck is in abeyance for the time being. I retired from HSBC in November 2010, since when I've continued my research activities as an independent researcher.
  • The top link on the right is to the hyperlinked HTML version. The original .pdf version is here.
  • Complete printable versions to various levels of footnoting are also listed. For an explanation of how the printable versions of the documents work, please click here1.
  • This proposal was intended to be more wide-ranging than the Thesis itself, so, while it uses much of the same material, it will not be taken any further.
  • In any case, it has now been superseded by the document below, which is more committal as to what I actually believe.

Research Proposal2.

Current Stance


2.
  • Follow the links on the right for a document that outlines my current beliefs on the topic of personal identity. While it covers similar ground to that of the Thesis below, its intention is to provide a quick overview. I intend to update it from time to time as my views clarify or change.
  • Complete printable versions to various levels of footnoting are also listed. For an explanation of how the printable versions of the documents work, please click here3.

Current Stance4.

Thesis

3.
  • Follow the link on the right for the Introduction & Chapter Outlines of my Thesis.

Thesis Outline5
4.
  • See opposite for the Thesis itself: The top link is again to the Introduction & Chapter Outlines.
  • The Thesis is very skeletal, though I now - as of April 2019 - intend to pursue it vigorously to fill in whatever I can based on my researches to date.
  • Complete printable versions to various levels of footnoting are also listed. For an explanation of how the printable versions of the documents work, please click here6.
  • Because these “printable versions” take a long time to produce at the lower levels, I sometimes switch the regeneration process off, which may mean the documents are out of date by a few days.
Thesis7

Current Focus

5.Current Core Activity
6. Current Peripheral Activity
  • In addition to the major work above, I am looking in some detail into the following papers & books – most of which have been published in the last few years – in order to ensure I’m up to date with recent trends of discussion.
  • There's a risk that this list will become an endless straggle as items get added and never removed.
  • Talking of straggles, this list11 provides another take on what I'm (supposed to be) working on!
PapersBooks

Essays


7.
  • During my two terms as a research student, most of my effort was focused on reading and commenting on various published journal papers or book chapters. The list opposite gives those that formed essays that were discussed at supervisions, in order of presentation.
  • The trouble I found was that I never had enough time to address anything significant - I had to have 3 supervisions a term whether I had anything to say or not, so my focus was always on trying to produce something for the next supervision rather than digging deeply and finding something worth saying.
  • A full list of Write-ups appears below.

Status Reports

8.
  • I provide myself with a quarterly Status Report of my Research project, which is limping along somewhat. The right-hand column provides access to this. Earlier reports can be accessed via the "Previous Published Version" link at the bottom of each report.
  • I addition, I have a Thesis Dashboard, which maps the progress of the 12 Chapters of my Thesis against a set of 12 tasks. See right.
  • I manage to distract myself by engaging in nine other projects outside my Research. Individual projects are accessed either via the Summary Report or via the Jump Table opposite.
  • I also produced a couple of termly status reports for Birkbeck when I was last there. These are opposite.
  • For an explanation of how the printable versions of the documents work, please click here19.

Supervisions


9.
  • Herewith the record of things discussed (or which I wish had been discussed) during my meetings with my MPhil/PhD Supervisor. The link to the jump table opposite contains one item for each supervision held. This area of the site used to be password protected, but this feature stopped working when I moved ISP, and in any case more than 10 years have gone by!
  • Printable versions are obtained from links at the bottom of the reports. For an explanation of how the printable versions of the documents work, please click here25.
  • For a printable (and on-line hyperlinked) concatenation of statistics for all the Notes in alphabetical order (which is also prefixed by the jump table, which gives information on links to each Note and summary information on reading lists), click on the link opposite.

Personal Identity Notes


10.
  • This is the jumping-off point for the sets of Notes I'm building up on the topic of Personal Identity, and allied subjects. The Jump Table used to print nicely on one page, but has now overflowed as the number of Notes has ballooned.
  • For a printable (and on-line hyperlinked) concatenation of statistics for all the Notes in alphabetical order (which is also prefixed by the jump table, which gives information on links to each Note and summary information on reading lists), click on the link opposite.

Write-Ups


11.
  • A test for my research method is how I document, absorb and integrate ideas triggered by reading published research papers.
  • For the BA I initially wrote Precis in MS Word (published as .pdf files).
  • For most papers I now use Abstracts, accessible from the various lists of papers (follow one of the links below, or the Research Database link26.
  • I'm trialling the use of Notes directly at the moment. The link to the Jump Table for these is to the right. My ultimate aim is to integrate them with the Personal Identity Notes.
  • The Jump Table used to print nicely on one page, but has now overflowed as the number of Notes has ballooned. For a printable (and on-line hyperlinked) concatenation of statistics for all the Notes in alphabetical order (which is also prefixed by the jump table, which gives information on links to each Note and summary information on reading lists), click on the link opposite.

Papers Referenced


12.
  • This document lists (in title within author sequence) the papers (or book chapters) on the subject of Personal Identity (and related topics) that I have actually got round to reading. The intention is to add handy summaries in the future. The literature on this topic is so vast, it's easy to lose track. I'm hoping this and similar documents will help somewhat.

13.
  • This document is the same as the above, but sorted initially by Sub-topic (where assigned; some more work is needed here).

14.
  • This document lists all the papers (or book chapters) on the subject of Personal Identity (and related topics) that I have collected. The intention is to add handy summaries, but one lifetime is probably insufficient.

15.
  • This document is the same as the above, but sorted initially by Sub-topic (where assigned; much more work is needed here. Items with no Sub-Topic assigned are assigned to "Unassigned").


Table of the Previous 4 Versions of this Note:

Date Length Title
21/04/2018 20:05:17 16686 Theo Todman's Philosophy Research Papers
05/04/2016 23:19:41 16682 Theo Todman's Philosophy Research Papers
07/01/2016 00:59:02 16272 Theo Todman's Philosophy Research Papers
30/03/2014 14738 Theo Todman's Research Papers


Note last updated Reference for this Topic Parent Topic
18/04/2019 18:18:43 1141 (Theo Todman's Philosophy Research) Theo Todman's Philosophy Page

Summary of Notes Referenced by This Note

Baillie - What Am I? Baker - Persons and Bodies Baker - Persons and Bodies (e-Symposium) Baker - What Am I? Brandom - Toward a Normative Pragmatics (Introduction)
Chisholm - Which Physical Thing Am I? Daniel Dennett – Conditions of Personhood Fine - A Counter-Example to Locke's Thesis Olson - The Human Animal Abstracta Symposium Olson - What Are We?
Research - Proposal Status: Birkbeck (Autumn 2007) Status: Birkbeck (Spring 2008) Status: Personal Identity (2024 - September) Status: Priority Task List (2024 - September)
Status: Summary (2024 - September) Status: Thesis Dashboard (2024: October) Theo Todman's Research Databases Thesis - Current Stance Thesis - Preface
Website Generator Documentation - Printable Notes        

To access information, click on one of the links in the table above.



Summary of Notes Citing This Note

Theo Todman's Philosophy Page, 2 Theo Todman's Research Databases      

To access information, click on one of the links in the table above.



Text Colour Conventions

  1. Blue: Text by me; © Theo Todman, 2024



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