Theo Todman's Web Page - Notes Pages
Personal Identity
Personite
(Text as at 06/07/2023 00:43:12)
Plug Note1
- Thesis Text:
- PERSONITE is a term of art related to that of Person2 recently coined by Mark Johnston3, though Eric Olson much earlier used the term “subperson” for the same concept. Olson also considers “cross-persons” – which are aggregates of temporal parts of different persons. He is simply adding the temporal dimension to the plenary ontology that allows any gerrymandered aggregate – my nose and the Eifel Tower – to be a “thing”.
- Anyway, a Personite is a temporal part of a person. If personites exist, and have moral status, then ethical problems arise as – for example – one personite gets the punishment for the misdeeds of another.
- Olson – without saying so explicitly – thinks that there are the same sort of problems arising for personites as arise for the Constitution View4. He also distinguishes Linguistic from Moral persons; the former are the references of personal pronouns according to our linguistic conventions, the latter are the appropriate recipients of our moral concerns. He can’t see how we can guarantee these coincide if we allow the existence of personites.
- Personites are also a consequence of Parfit5’s Relation R as a criterion for what matters in persistence, given that its application is vague.
- I doubt there are any more problems with personites than with appear in the problems:-
→ Dion and Theon6,
→ Tibbles the Cat7,
→ The Problem of the Many8,
and the like. It just adds a temporal dimension, though this is already present in "Lewis (David) - Survival and Identity", as Johnston acknowledges.
References
- Relevant Works cited above: No items to list.
- For a page of Links9 to this Note, Click here.
- Works on this topic that I’ve actually read10, include the following:-
- A further reading list might start with:-
- General:
- "Eklund (Matti) - The Existence of Personites", 2019, External Link, Internal PDF Link, Read = 11%
- "Johnston (Mark) - Personites, Maximality and Ontological Trash", 2016, Internal PDF Link, Read = 15%
- "Johnston (Mark) - The Personite Problem: Should Practical Reason Be Tabled?", 2017, Read = 12%
- "Kaiserman (Alexander) - Stage Theory and the Personite Problem", 2019, External Link, Internal PDF Link, Read = 44%
- "Pautz (Adam) - Johnston’s Puzzle about Personites", 2014, External Link, Internal PDF Link, Read = 67%
- 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:-
- Read: No items to list.
- Further Reading: No items to list.
- This is mostly a place-holder11.
In-Page Footnotes:
Footnote 3:
- Mark Johnston: see:-
→ "Johnston (Mark) - Personites, Maximality and Ontological Trash", and
→ "Johnston (Mark) - The Personite Problem: Should Practical Reason Be Tabled?".
- I need to chase up the references in Olson.
Table of the Previous 4 Versions of this Note:
| Note last updated |
Reading List for this Topic |
Parent Topic |
| 06/07/2023 00:43:12 |
Personite |
Person |
Summary of Notes Referenced by This Note
To access information, click on one of the links in the table above.
Summary of Notes Citing This Note
| Person |
PID Note, Book & Paper Usage, 2, 3 |
Thesis - Chapter 03 (What is a Person?), 2, 3, 4, 5 |
Thesis - Chapter 12 (Conclusion) |
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.
Authors, Books & Papers Citing this Note
| Author |
Title |
Medium |
Extra Links |
Read? |
| Eklund (Matti) |
The Existence of Personites |
Paper  |
2, 3, 4, 5, 6 |
|
| Johnston (Mark) |
Personites, Maximality and Ontological Trash |
Paper |
2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 |
|
| Johnston (Mark) |
The Personite Problem: Should Practical Reason Be Tabled? |
Paper |
|
|
| Olson (Eric) |
Ethics and the Generous Ontology |
Paper  |
|
Yes |
| Pautz (Adam) |
Johnston’s Puzzle about Personites |
Paper |
|
|
| Todman (Theo) |
Thesis - Chapter 03 (What is a Person?) |
Paper |
2, 3, 4, 5 |
Yes |
| Todman (Theo) |
Thesis - Chapter 12 (Conclusion) |
Paper |
|
Yes |
| Todman (Theo) |
Thesis - Current Position |
Paper |
|
Yes |
| Todman (Theo) |
Thesis - Person |
Paper |
|
Yes |
| Todman (Theo) |
Thesis - Personal Identity |
Paper  |
2, 3 |
Yes |
References & Reading List
| Author |
Title |
Medium |
Source |
Read? |
| Davies (Martin) |
Interaction without reduction: The relationship between personal and
sub-personal levels of description |
Paper - By Subtopic |
Mind and Society, 1(2), 2000, 87–105 |
No |
| Davies (Martin) |
Persons and their Underpinnings |
Paper - By Subtopic |
Philosophical Explorations, 3 no.1 (January 2000), pp. 43–62 |
No |
| Eklund (Matti) |
The Existence of Personites |
Paper - Cited |
Philosophical Studies, 2019 |
11% |
| Johnston (Mark) |
Personites, Maximality and Ontological Trash |
Paper - Cited |
Philosophical Perspectives, 30, 2016, 198–228 |
15% |
| Johnston (Mark) |
The Personite Problem: Should Practical Reason Be Tabled? |
Paper - Cited |
Nous 51:3, 2017, pp. 617-644 |
12% |
| Kaiserman (Alexander) |
Stage Theory and the Personite Problem |
Paper - Cited |
Forthcoming (as of May 2019) in Analysis |
44% |
| Lewis (David) |
Philosophical Papers Volume I |
Book - Cited (via Paper Cited) |
Bibliographical details to be supplied |
Yes |
| Lewis (David) |
Survival and Identity |
Paper - Cited |
Lewis - Philosophical Papers Volume I, Part 1: Ontology, Chapter 5 |
Yes |
| Olson (Eric) |
Ethics and the Generous Ontology |
Paper - Cited |
Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics 31 (special issue: Personal Identity and Bioethics), 2010: 259–270 |
Yes |
| Olson (Eric) |
Ethics and the Generous Ontology |
Paper - Referencing |
Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics 31 (special issue: Personal Identity and Bioethics), 2010: 259–270 |
Yes |
| Olson (Eric) |
Papers on Identity Boxes: Vol 13 (Olson) |
Book - Cited (via Paper Cited) |
Bibliographical details to be supplied |
16% |
| Olson (Eric) |
Papers on Identity Boxes: Vol 13 (Olson) |
Book - Referencing (via Paper Referencing) |
Bibliographical details to be supplied |
16% |
| Pautz (Adam) |
Johnston’s Puzzle about Personites |
Paper - Cited |
Academia.edu; Comments at APA 2014 |
33% |
| Todman (Theo) |
Thesis - Personite |
Paper - By Subtopic |
|
Yes |
Text Colour Conventions
- Blue: Text by me; © Theo Todman, 2026