Theo Todman's Web Page - Notes Pages

Personal Identity

Holes & Smiles

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

Plug Note¹

• Thesis Text:
  1. I was unsure whether to title this Note as “Holes” or “Smiles”, so decided on a combination. While only the former is a recognised philosophical topic, the latter is a recognised as a problem for the Constitution View².
  2. The relevance to my Thesis is somewhat tangential, but the idea is that there are features³ of other things that are – most likely – not separable entities but which still have persistence conditions⁴. It makes sense to ask whether a particular hole is the same hole as it was a week ago, or a particular smile the same smile as a few seconds ago – smiles “wear thin” if the photographer takes too long. But neither holes nor smiles can exist separately to their host. The Cheshire Cat’s smile is not to be taken at face value.
  3. I see an analogy with this situation and persons⁵ or First Person Perspectives⁶. Often, when a non-philosopher doubts whether someone is the same person⁷ as they had been previously, they are thinking of a radical personality change. A personality⁸ is like a very complex and enduring smile – a property⁹ of something else. It cannot exist on its own, disembodied¹⁰, or pass from one body¹¹ to another.

• ---

  Further Remarks:
  1. The philosophical topic of holes is not the same as the topological one. A hole in topology has a specific meaning to the effect that the holed object cannot be shrunk to a point. However, it seems that philosophical holes include pits. A pitted sphere is topologically equivalent to a smooth one. The same goes for a sphere with a curly-whirly woodworm hole that doesn’t form a knot, and doesn’t pass through the sphere. Not that this has any obvious bearing on the philosophy of personal identity!

References

• Relevant Works cited above: No items to list.
• For a Page of Links¹² to this Note, Click here. I’ve not investigated₁₃ these lists.
• Works on this topic that I’ve actually read¹⁴, include the following:-
  • Aeon:
    1. "Finn (Suki) - Is a hole a real thing, or just a place where something isn’t?", 2018, External Link, Internal PDF Link
  • General:
    1. "Baillie (James) - What Am I?", 1993, Write-Up Note¹⁵, Footnote₁₆
    2. "Casati (Roberto) & Varzi (Achille) - Holes", 1996-2014, Internal PDF Link
    3. "Lewis (David) & Lewis (Stephanie) - Holes", 1970
    4. "Olson (Eric) - What Are We?", 2007, Write-Up Note¹⁷, Annotations, Internal PDF Link, Footnote₁₈
    5. "Thomas (Janice L.) - Plato's Phaedo", 2000, Footnote₁₉
• A further reading list might start with:-
  • General:
    1. "Bench-Capon (T.J.M.) - A Note on Mr. Karmo's Disturbances", 1977, Internal PDF Link, Read = 33%
    2. "Casati (Roberto) & Varzi (Achille) - Counting the Holes", 2004, External Link, Internal PDF Link
    3. "Casati (Roberto) & Varzi (Achille) - Immaterial Bodies", 1994, No Abstract
    4. "Geach (Peter) & Stoothoff (Robert) - Symposium: What Actually Exists", 1968, Internal PDF Link, Read = 5%
    5. "Giralt (Nuria) & Bloom (Paul) - How Special Are Objects? Children's Reasoning about Objects, Parts, and Holes", 2000, Internal PDF Link, Read = 17%
    6. "Karmo (Toomas) - Disturbances", 1977, Internal PDF Link, Read = 33%
    7. "Lewis (David) & Lewis (Stephanie) - Casati and Varzi on Holes", 1996, No Abstract
    8. "Meadows (Phillip John) - What Angles Can Tell Us About What Holes Are Not", 2013, Internal PDF Link, Read = 8%
    9. "Miller (Kristie) - Immaterial Beings", 2007, Internal PDF Link, Read = 10%
    10. "Sosa (Ernest) - Subjects Among Other Things", 1987, Internal PDF Link, Read = 12%, Footnote₂₀
    11. "Wake (Andrew), Spencer (Joshua) & Fowler (Gregory) - Holes as Regions of Spacetime", 2007, Internal PDF Link, Read = 17%

  ---

• 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-holder²¹.

---

In-Page Footnotes:

Footnote 13:

• I’ve no doubt almost all items are irrelevant (and many for “holes” false positives like “wholes”; but at least the key word wasn’t “hole”).

Footnote 16:

• This paper – inter alia – confirms my “take” on the Cheshire Cat’s smile.
• See Draft Note, Review Comments.

Footnote 18:

• See Draft Note.
• Review Comments:–
  → First Half,
  → Second Half.
• Olson mentions dents rather than holes, but a dent is a hole philosophically-speaking, it seems.
• Topologically-speaking, a dent is a smile.

Footnote 19:

• Simmias’s “tuning of the lyre” objection to the separable existence of souls. Thomas mentions the Cheshire Cat.

Footnote 20:

• Mentions smiles and persons in Section G.

---

Table of the Previous 5 Versions of this Note:

Date	Length	Title
20/09/2022 11:24:00	4291	Holes & Smiles
11/05/2022 21:43:12	3910	Holes & Smiles
12/02/2021 15:44:38	3561	Holes & Smiles
25/09/2020 20:15:22	2877	Holes & Smiles
04/07/2018 18:31:41	3922	Holes & Smiles

---

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

---

Summary of Notes Referenced by This Note

Awaiting Attention (Personal Identity)	Baillie - What Am I?	Body	Constitution View	Disembodied Existence
First-Person Perspective	Jen_080204 (Brandom, Chisholm, Baillie)	Jen_080218 (Olson)	Jen_080303 (Olson, Baillie)	Note Links Explanation
Olson - What Are We?	Persistence Criteria	Person	Personality	Plug Note Apologia
Properties	Works Read - Explanation

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

---

Summary of Notes Citing This Note

Aeon Papers	Baker - Materialism with a Human Face	Baker - Review - Olson - What Are We?	Olson - What Are We? The Question	PID Note, Book & Paper Usage, 2, 3, 4, 5
Thesis - Chapter 09 (Arguments against the Constitution View), 2, 3, 4, 5	Thesis - Chapter 12 (Conclusion)	Thesis - Current Stance	Thesis - Personal Identity, 2, 3	Website Generator Documentation - Auto-Reference Notes
Website Generator Documentation - Functors, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

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?
Baker (Lynne Rudder)	Review of 'What Are We? A Study in Personal Ontology' by Eric T. Olson	Paper		Yes
Hains (Brigid) & Hains (Paul)	Aeon: 2019+	Paper		Yes
Kuhn (Robert Lawrence)	Aeon - Video - Jeff Tollaksen - quantum mechanics experiments	Paper		Yes
Olson (Eric)	What Are We? The Question	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Chapter 09 (Arguments against the Constitution View)	Paper	2, 3, 4, 5	Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Chapter 12 (Conclusion)	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Current Position	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Personal Identity	Paper	2, 3	Yes

---

References & Reading List

Author	Title	Medium	Source	Read?
Baker (Lynne Rudder)	Materialism with a Human Face	Paper - Referencing	Corcoran - Soul, Body and Survival, Chapter 10	Yes
Baker (Lynne Rudder)	Review of 'What Are We? A Study in Personal Ontology' by Eric T. Olson	Paper - Referencing	Mind, 117:1120-1122, 2008	Yes
Bench-Capon (T.J.M.)	A Note on Mr. Karmo's Disturbances	Paper - Cited	Analysis, Vol. 37, No. 4 (Jun., 1977), pp. 148-149	No
Casati (Roberto) & Varzi (Achille)	Counting the Holes	Paper - Cited	Jackson - Lewisian Themes: The Philosophy of David K. Lewis, Chapter 2	No
Casati (Roberto) & Varzi (Achille)	Holes	Paper - Cited	Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy, 1996-2014	Yes
Casati (Roberto) & Varzi (Achille)	Immaterial Bodies	Paper - Cited	Casati & Varzi - Holes and Other Superficialities, MIT, 1994	No
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%
Finn (Suki)	Is a hole a real thing, or just a place where something isn’t?	Paper - Cited	Aeon, 29 June, 2018	Yes
Geach (Peter) & Stoothoff (Robert)	Symposium: What Actually Exists	Paper - Cited	Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, Supplementary Volumes, Vol. 42 (1968), pp. 7-30	5%
Giralt (Nuria) & Bloom (Paul)	How Special Are Objects? Children's Reasoning about Objects, Parts, and Holes	Paper - Cited	Psychological Science, Vol. 11, No. 6 (Nov., 2000), pp. 497-501	17%
Hains (Brigid) & Hains (Paul)	Aeon: C-F	Book - Cited (via Paper Cited)	Bibliographical details to be supplied	51%
Hales (Steven D.), Ed.	Metaphysics: Contemporary Readings	Book - Cited (via Paper Cited)	Bibliographical details to be supplied	6%
Jackson (Frank) & Priest (Graham), Eds.	Lewisian Themes: The Philosophy of David K. Lewis	Book - Cited (via Paper Cited)	Bibliographical details to be supplied	5%
Kuhn (Robert Lawrence)	Aeon - Video - Jeff Tollaksen - quantum mechanics experiments	Paper - Referencing	Aeon, 10 February 2022	Yes
Lewis (David)	Philosophical Papers Volume I	Book - Cited (via Paper Cited)	Bibliographical details to be supplied	Yes
Lewis (David) & Lewis (Stephanie)	Holes	Paper - Cited	Lewis - Philosophical Papers Volume I, Part 1: Ontology, Chapter 1	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
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.)	Plato's Phaedo	Paper - Cited	Thomas (Janice L.) - Mind and Person in the Philosophy of Religion	Yes

---

Text Colour Conventions

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

---

© Theo Todman, June 2007 - July 2026.	Please address any comments on this page to theo@theotodman.com.	File output: 02/08/2026 01:09:40 Website Maintenance Dashboard
Return to Top of this Page	Return to Theo Todman's Philosophy Page	Return to Theo Todman's Home Page

---