Theo Todman's Web Page - Notes Pages
Status Reports
Status: Personal Identity (2015 - March)
(Text as at 23/04/2015 21:14:24)
*** THIS IS NOT THE LATEST VERSION OF THIS NOTE ***
(For the live version and other versions of this Note, see the tables at the end)
Rationale for this Project
- I am researching the subject of Personal Identity primarily because of its intrinsic interest and importance. It is really a sub-topic in my Philosophy of Religion1 project, with its penultimate chapter considering the metaphysical possibility of resurrection.
- While I’m interested in the topic of my research in its own right, I think when I’ve sorted it out a bit, and have something to say, I’ll want to engage with other philosophers active in this field – and re-starting a PhD at Birkbeck or elsewhere might be the only effective way to do this.
- While a PhD is not an end in itself, and certainly not the ultimate aim of my doing philosophy, it’s still true that a PhD would teach me research techniques, provide focus and direction, and furnish a professional qualification should I want to publish any results in this or any other area of philosophy.
Summary of Progress during January – March 2015
- I spent 228 hours in 1Q15 (440 hours YTD, where for “YTD” – Year to Date – I mean the (academic) year that commenced in October 2014) on my Thesis or Thesis-related work. That’s 81% of the planned effort (77% YTD). Overall, 34% of my Project effort in the Quarter was directed towards this project (making 36% YTD) – as against 45% planned (45% YTD).
- Progress between reports can be obtained from the relevant section of my Summary Task List (Click_Here2).
- This quarter, effort was yet again expended on a vast number of tasks, as listed below, but key items included the following:-
- Took a look at some metaphysics books, in particular,
- "Aune (Bruce) - Metaphysics: The Elements",
- "Benardete (Jose A.) - Metaphysics: The Logical Approach",
- "Hales (Steven D.), Ed. - Metaphysics: Contemporary Readings",
- "Hamlyn (D.W.) - Metaphysics",
- "Hasker (William) - Metaphysics: Constructing a World View",
- "Hirsch (Eli) - Dividing Reality",
- "Loux (Michael) - Metaphysics - A Contemporary Introduction",
- "Post (John F.) - Metaphysics: A Contemporary Introduction",
- "Smith (Quentin) & Oaklander (L. Nathan) - Time, Change and Freedom: An Introduction to Metaphysics",
- "Van Inwagen (Peter) - Metaphysics".
- Received an invitation (along with numbers of other – and more professionally-qualified – philosophers) from Keith Augustine to review "Martin (L. Michael) & Augustine (Keith) - The Myth of an Afterlife: The Case against Life After Death",
- Made an effort to re-start studying the works of Lynne Rudder Baker, focusing on "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - Persons in the Material World", the first Chapter of "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - Persons and Bodies: A Constitution View".
- Started "Blackburn (Simon) - Has Kant Refuted Parfit?", an important paper the analysis of which I need to complete.
- Discovered "Bermudez (Jose Luis) - Thinking Without Words", another important work that I intend to pursue.
- Spent a lot of time investigating "Bourget (David) & Chalmers (David) - The PhilPapers Surveys: What Do Philosophers Believe?", stimulated by one of Olson’s footnotes on the surprising lack of popularity of Animalism. Time surprisingly well-spent, I think.
- Discovered Andrew M. Bailey, a rare animalist.
- Converted my old pdf-format analysis of"Crane (Tim) - Elements of Mind - An Introduction to the Philosophy of Mind" to Notes write-ups. This took a long time, and didn’t really give the opportunity to re-engage with the topic, as I’d hoped. But it was a necessary precursor to so-doing.
- Continued reading:-
- "Dunne (John S.) - City of the Gods: A Study in Myth and Mortality", but doubt it’s worth completing.
- "Erber (Joan T.) & Szuchman (Lenore T.) - Great Myths of Aging". It’s not strictly relevant to my thesis, but interesting nonetheless.
- "Kamm (Oliver) - Accidence Will Happen: The Non-Pedantic Guide to English Usage", relevant for style
- "Marshall (Richard) - Philosophy at 3:AM: Questions and Answers with 25 Top Philosophers",
- "Pross (Addy) - What is Life?: How Chemistry Becomes Biology".
- Completed reading:-
- "Mulgan (Tim) - Critical Notice of Jeff McMahan's The Ethics of Killing: Problems at the Margins of Life", but haven’t made a write-up yet,
- "Olson (Eric) - Life After Death and the Devastation of the Grave"; I’ve started a write-up but not completed it yet,
- "Strathern (Paul) - Kant in 90 Minutes", as background, for no good reason.
- Spent quite a lot of time on website-infrastuctural task, in preparing the ground for converting pdfs to Notes and also in improving the quality of abstracts (particularly where the colour-coding is incorrect).
- More detail follows:-
Thesis (Total Hours = 182)
- Thesis - Reading / Writing (Total Hours = 180.25)
- "Anscombe (G.E.M.) - The Intentionality of Sensation: A Grammatical Feature" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Anthony (Andrew), Midgley (Mary) - Mary Midgley: a late stand for a philosopher with soul" (Read / Write, 2.5 hours)
- "Augustine (Keith) - The Myth of an Afterlife: Introduction" (Write, 2.5 hours)
- "Aune (Bruce) - Appearance and Reality" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Aune (Bruce) - Changing Things" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Aune (Bruce) - Existence" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Aune (Bruce) - Linguistic Arguments for Abstracta" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Aune (Bruce) - Meaning, Truth, and Metaphysics" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Aune (Bruce) - Metaphysical Freedom" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Aune (Bruce) - Metaphysics: The Elements - Preface" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Aune (Bruce) - Universals and Particulars" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Aune (Bruce) - What Is Metaphysics?" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Aune (Bruce) - Worlds, Objects, and Structure" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Bacon (John), Campbell (Keith) & Reinhardt (Lloyd) - Ontology, Causality and Mind: Preface" (Read / Write, 3 hours)
- "Bailey (Andrew M.) - Incompatibilism and the Past" (Read, 0.25 hours)
- "Bailey (Andrew M.) - No Bare Particulars" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Bailey (Andrew M.) - The Elimination Argument" (Read / Write, 1 hour)
- "Bailey (Andrew M.) - The Incompatibility of Composition as Identity, Priority Pluralism, and Irreflexive Grounding" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Bailey (Andrew M.) - The Priority Principle" (Read / Write, 0.75 hours)
- "Bailey (Andrew M.) - You Needn’t be Simple" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Bailey (Andrew M.), Rasmussen (Joshua) & Van Horn (Luke) - No Pairing Problem" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - Death and the Afterlife" (Read / Write, 3 hours)
- "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - In Favour Of the Constitution View" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - Personal Identity Over Time" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - Persons in the Material World" (Write, 6 hours)
- "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - Precis of 'Persons & Bodies: A Constitution View'" (Write, 1 hour)
- "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - Reply to Garrett" (Write, 1.25 hours)
- "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - Reply to Noonan" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - Reply to Olson" (Write, 0.75 hours)
- "Benardete (Jose A.) - Metaphysics: The Logical Approach" (Write, 1.75 hours)
- "Bermudez (Jose Luis) - Thinking Without Words" (Read / Write, 1 hour)
- "Blackburn (Simon) - Has Kant Refuted Parfit?" (Read / Write, 2 hours)
- "Bourget (David) & Chalmers (David) - The PhilPapers Surveys: What Do Philosophers Believe?" (Read / Write, 16.75 hours)
- "Cassam (Quassim) - The Embodied Self" (Read / Write, 1.5 hours)
- "Cavell (Marcia) - Introduction: Davidson - Problems of Rationality" (Write, 0.75 hours)
- "Cavell (Marcia) - Introduction: Davidson - Truth, Language, and History" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Chisholm (Roderick) - Identity Through Time" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Chisholm (Roderick) - Identity Through Time" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Chisholm (Roderick) & Shoemaker (Sydney) - Symposium: The Loose and Popular and the Strict and Philosophical Senses of Identity" (Write, 0.75 hours)
- "Coope (Christopher) - Death Sentences" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Corcoran (Kevin) - Dualism, Materialism and the Problem of Post Mortem Survival" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Corcoran (Kevin) - Rethinking Human Nature: A Christian Materialist Alternative to the Soul" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- Correspondence on Fodor's Language of Thought (Write, 0.25 hours)
- Correspondence re Blackburn on Kant's refutation of Parfit (Write, 0.25 hours)
... See "Admin - Thesis - Outline & Initial Research (Jan - March)"
- "Craig (William Lane) & Smith (Quentin) - Theism, Atheism, and Big Bang Cosmology" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Crane (Tim) - Body" (Write, 9 hours)
- "Crane (Tim) - Mind" (Write, 8 hours)
- "Crane (Tim) - Perception" (Write, 4.5 hours)
- "Crane (Tim) - Thought" (Write, 5.5 hours)
- "Davidson (Donald) - Essays on Actions and Events: Preface/Introduction" (Write, 1 hour)
- "Davidson (Donald) - Inquiries into Truth & Interpretation: Preface/Introduction" (Write, 1 hour)
- "Davidson (Donald) - Subjective, Intersubjective, Objective: Introduction" (Write, 1 hour)
- "Dunne (John S.) - City of the Gods: A Study in Myth and Mortality" (Read, 1.75 hours)
- "Erber (Joan T.) & Szuchman (Lenore T.) - Great Myths of Aging: Endings and Loss" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Erber (Joan T.) & Szuchman (Lenore T.) - Great Myths of Aging: Introduction" (Read, 0.25 hours)
- "Erber (Joan T.) & Szuchman (Lenore T.) - Great Myths of Aging: Living Contexts" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Erber (Joan T.) & Szuchman (Lenore T.) - Great Myths of Aging: The Body" (Read / Write, 2.5 hours)
- "Erber (Joan T.) & Szuchman (Lenore T.) - Great Myths of Aging: The Mind" (Read / Write, 2 hours)
- "Erber (Joan T.) & Szuchman (Lenore T.) - Great Myths of Aging: The Self" (Read / Write, 0.75 hours)
- "Fodor (Jerry) - Four Accounts of Mental Structure" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Frankfurt (Harry) - Freedom of the Will and the Concept of a Person" (Write, 1.25 hours)
- "Funkhouser (Eric) - Metaphysics, Spring 2014" (Write, 1.25 hours)
- "Hales (Steven D.) - Metaphysics: Contemporary Readings: Prefaces & Contents" (Read / Write, 7 hours)
- "Hamlyn (D.W.) - Appearance and Reality" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Hamlyn (D.W.) - Metaphysics - Epilogue: Man and Nature" (Read, 0.25 hours)
- "Hamlyn (D.W.) - Metaphysics - Introduction" (Write, 0.75 hours)
- "Hamlyn (D.W.) - Minds" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Hamlyn (D.W.) - Ontology" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Hamlyn (D.W.) - Particular and General" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Hamlyn (D.W.) - Persons and Personal Identity" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Hamlyn (D.W.) - Simple Substances: Monism and Pluralism" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Hamlyn (D.W.) - Space and Time" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Hamlyn (D.W.) - Substance" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Hasker (William) - Introducing Metaphysics" (Write, 2 hours)
- "Haslanger (Sally) - Endurance and Temporary Intrinsics" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Hirsch (Eli) - Dividing Reality: Preface" (Read / Write, 2.25 hours)
- "Kim (Jaegwon) - Philosophy of Mind: Preface" (Write, 1.5 hours)
- "Korner (Stephan) - Kant" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Kripke (Saul) - Wittgenstein on Rules and Private Language: Preface" (Write, 1.25 hours)
- "Laurence (Stephen) & Macdonald (Cynthia) - Metaphysics and Ontology" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Leibowitz (Alex) - Notes on Plantinga, “Modalities: Basic Concepts and Distinctions”" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Lewis (David) - The Problem of Temporary Intrinsics" (Read / Write, 1 hour)
- "Loux (Michael) - Concrete Particulars I: Substrata, Bundles, and Substances" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Loux (Michael) - Concrete Particulars II: Persistence Through Time" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Loux (Michael) - Metaphysics - A Contemporary Introduction: Prefaces & Introduction" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Loux (Michael) - Propositions and Their Neighbours" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Loux (Michael) - The Challenge Of Anti-Realism" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Loux (Michael) - The Necessary and the Possible" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Loux (Michael) - The Problem of Universals I: Metaphysical Realism" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Loux (Michael) - The Problem of Universals II: Nominalism" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Luper (Steven) - The Cambridge Companion to Life and Death: Introduction" (Write, 1.25 hours)
- "Marsh (Henry) - Do No Harm: Stories of Life, Death and Brain Surgery" (Read / Write, 1 hour)
- "Marshall (Richard) & Churchland (Patricia) - Patricia Churchland: Causal Machines" (Read, 0.75 hours)
- "Marshall (Richard) & Fine (Kit) - Kit Fine: Metaphysical Kit" (Read, 0.5 hours)
- "Marshall (Richard) & Tiberius (Valerie) - Valerie Tiberius: Mostly Elephant, Ergo…" (Read, 0.75 hours)
- "McDaniel (Kris) - Against composition as identity" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "McDaniel (Kris) - Composition as Identity Does Not Entail Universalism" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "McGinn (Colin) - Animal Minds, Animal Morality" (Read / Write, 0.5 hours)
- "McGinn (Colin) - Conceptual Causation: Some Elementary Reflections" (Read, 0.25 hours)
- "McGinn (Colin) - The Problem of Philosophy" (Read / Write, 1.25 hours)
- "Moran (Alexander P.) - Animalism and the Thinking Parts Problem" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Mulgan (Tim) - Critical Notice of Jeff McMahan's The Ethics of Killing: Problems at the Margins of Life" (Read / Write, 4.25 hours)
- "Nagel (Thomas) - The View from Nowhere: Introduction" (Read / Write, 1.75 hours)
- "Nagel (Thomas) - Mortal Questions: Preface" (Read / Write, 0.75 hours)
- "Oaklander (L. Nathan) - The Nature of Freedom" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Oaklander (L. Nathan) - Time and Identity" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Olson (Eric) - Immanent Causation and Life After Death" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Olson (Eric) - Life After Death and the Devastation of the Grave" (Read / Write, 5.25 hours)
- "Olson (Eric) - On Parfit's View That We Are Not Human Beings" (Read / Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Olson (Eric) - Personal Identity - Oxford Bibliographies Online" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Olson (Eric) - Self: Personal Identity" (Read / Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Olson (Eric) - The Metaphysical Implications of Conjoined Twining" (Read / Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Olson (Eric) - The Nature of People" (Read, 0.75 hours)
- "Olson (Eric) - The Role of the Brainstem in Personal Identity" (Read / Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Parfit (Derek) - We Are Not Human Beings" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Post (John F.) - Metaphysics: A Contemporary Introduction - Introduction" (Read / Write, 1.75 hours)
- "Pross (Addy) - Biology is Chemistry" (Read, 1.5 hours)
- "Pross (Addy) - Biology's Crisis of Identity" (Read, 0.75 hours)
- "Pross (Addy) - Living Things are so Very Strange" (Read, 1 hour)
- "Pross (Addy) - Stability and Instability" (Read, 1 hour)
- "Pross (Addy) - The Knotty Origin of Life Problem" (Read, 1.5 hours)
- "Pross (Addy) - The Quest for a Theory of Life" (Read, 0.5 hours)
- "Pross (Addy) - Understanding 'Understanding'" (Read, 1 hour)
- "Quine (W.V.) - Identity, Ostension, and Hypostasis" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Raibley (Jason R.) - Review of 'Valerie Tiberius - The Reflective Life: Living Wisely with Our Limits'" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Smith (Quentin) - Physical Time and the Universe" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Smith (Quentin) - The Finite and the Infinite" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Smith (Quentin) - Time, Change and Freedom: Introduction" (Read / Write, 3.25 hours)
- "Sutton (Catherine S.) - Colocated Objects, Tally-Ho: A Solution to the Grounding Problem" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Sutton (Catherine S.) - Composition as Identity - A Resource Page" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Sutton (Catherine S.) - The Supervenience Solution to the Too-Many-Thinkers Problem" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Thomson (Judith Jarvis) - Parthood and Identity Across Time" (Write, 1.25 hours)
- "Tiberius (Valerie) - Perspective: A Prudential Virtue" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Tiberius (Valerie) - Practical Reason and the Stability Standard" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Tiberius (Valerie) - The Reflective Life: Living Wisely with Our Limits" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Tiberius (Valerie) - Virtue and Practical Deliberation" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Tiberius (Valerie) - Wisdom and Perspective" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Tiberius (Valerie) & Walker (John D.) - Arrogance" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Animalists" (Write, 2 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Chapter 01 (Introduction)" (Write, 1 hour)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Chapter 02 (What Are We?)" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Chapter 04 (Basic Metaphysical Issues)" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Chapter 07 (The Constitution View and Arguments for It)" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Chapter 08 (Arguments against Animalism)" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Chapter 11 (Resurrection)" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Kant" (Write, 1 hour)
- "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - Olson" (Write, 0.75 hours)
- "Torrengo (Giuliano) & Ciuni (Roberto) - Introduction - Time and Time Experience" (Read / Write, 0.75 hours)
- "Van Inwagen (Peter) - Individuality" (Read, 1.5 hours)
- "Van Inwagen (Peter) - Metaphysics: Part One: The Way The World Is - Introduction" (Read / Write, 1 hour)
- "Van Inwagen (Peter) - Metaphysics: Introduction" (Write, 9.75 hours)
- "Van Inwagen (Peter) - When are Objects Parts?" (Write, 0.5 hours)
- "Van Inwagen (Peter) & Zimmerman (Dean) - Metaphysics: The Big Questions - Preface" (Write, 1.5 hours)
- "Woollard (Fiona) - Review of 'Valerie Tiberius - The Reflective Life: Living Wisely with Our Limits'" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- Thesis - Research Repositioning
Thesis Background (Total Hours = 45.75)
- Thesis Background - Reading / Writing (Total Hours = 16)
- "Anscombe (G.E.M.) - Collected Philosophical Papers Volume 2: Metaphysics and the Philosophy of Mind - Introduction" (Write, 2 hours)
- "Campbell (Aifric) - The Semantics of Murder" (Read, 0.5 hours)
- "Dennett (Daniel) - Higher-order truths about chmess" (Read / Write, 0.75 hours)
- "Guyer (Paul) - The Starry Heavens and the Moral Law" (Read, 0.25 hours)
- "Kamm (Oliver) - Accidence Will Happen: The Non-Pedantic Guide to English Usage" (Read, 3.25 hours)
- "McGinn (Colin) - Can We Solve the Mind-Body Problem?" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "McGinn (Colin) - Charity, Interpretation, and Belief" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "McGinn (Colin) - Conceptual Causation: Some Elementary Reflections" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "McGinn (Colin) - Consciousness as Knowingness" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "McGinn (Colin) - Philosophical Materialism" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "McGinn (Colin) - Précis of 'Logical Properties: Identity, Existence, Prediction, Necessity, Truth'" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "McGinn (Colin) - Rigid Designation and Semantic Value" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "McGinn (Colin) - Single-case Probability and Logical Form" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Strathern (Paul) - Kant in 90 Minutes" (Read / Write, 5.5 hours)
- "Vardy (Peter) - What is Truth? Beyond Postmodernism and Fundamentalism" (Write, 1.75 hours)
- Thesis Background - Admin
- Thesis Background - Aristotelian (Reading)
- Thesis Background - Books Admin (Total Hours = 23.5)
- Thesis Background - Status
Plans for the Near Future – Top Priority Tasks
- I now have a clearer idea of what I want to do over the next 4 years3, which is to complete a thesis to my own satisfaction. As such I require rigorous focus on the priority tasks, books and papers. Lower-priority reading is not likely to get a look in, so will be cut.
- My next step is to ensure that everything that is relevant that I have actually read is written up and incorporated in my Notes database and only later – and secondly – considering anything that I have not yet read. This will require discipline, but will be an iterative process.
- So, the tasks for the next quarter are:-
- Complete a full review and update of the Notes I’ve created on Personal Identity, focusing on those with little / no content other than a reading list.
- Start serious work on Chapter_64 (Animalism) of my Thesis5. In this regard:-
- Incorporate electronic write-up text into the Chapter and associated Notes.
- Do the same for marginal annotations, converting them to write-ups first (if appropriate).
- Leave un-annotated papers alone for now, …
- The exceptions being "Olson (Eric) - The Human Animal - Personal Identity Without Psychology", my core text,
- "Merricks (Trenton) - Objects and Persons", and
- "Bermudez (Jose Luis) - Thinking Without Words".
- Do the same for Chapter_76 (The Constitution View):-
- Start a serious review of "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - Persons and Bodies: A Constitution View", my other core text.
- Read and review "Corcoran (Kevin) - Rethinking Human Nature: A Christian Materialist Alternative to the Soul".
- For Chapter_117 (Resurrection):-
- Start a thorough review of "Martin (L. Michael) & Augustine (Keith) - The Myth of an Afterlife: The Case against Life After Death",
- In particular, complete the write-up of "Olson (Eric) - Life After Death and the Devastation of the Grave", and
- Compare & contrast it with "Olson (Eric) - Immanent Causation and Life After Death",
- Start a review of "Luper (Steven), Ed. - The Cambridge Companion to Life and Death".
- Complete a review of "Johnston (Mark) - 'Human Beings' Revisited: My Body is Not an Animal".
- Metaphysics: Study:-
- "Van Inwagen (Peter) - Metaphysics",
- "Post (John F.) - Metaphysics: A Contemporary Introduction", and
- "Smith (Quentin) & Oaklander (L. Nathan) - Time, Change and Freedom: An Introduction to Metaphysics".
- As background tasks:-
- Convert old PDF-précis, Etc. to Notes,
- Continue with "Marshall (Richard) - Philosophy at 3:AM: Questions and Answers with 25 Top Philosophers",
- Complete "Kamm (Oliver) - Accidence Will Happen: The Non-Pedantic Guide to English Usage",
- Complete "Erber (Joan T.) & Szuchman (Lenore T.) - Great Myths of Aging",
- Read "Dunne (John S.) - City of the Gods: A Study in Myth and Mortality",
- Read "Pross (Addy) - What is Life?: How Chemistry Becomes Biology",
- Keep up with the Journals via JSTOR8.
Summary of Progress to Date
This was hived off to a separate Note9 back in 2010, and hasn’t changed much since.
In-Page Footnotes
Footnote 3:
- Hopefully, I may complete, or get stuck, earlier.
- By “4 years”, I mean the period ending on my 65th birthday – ie. 13/11/2018. This is not to slip!
- On the plus side, I’m much further advanced than would be expected of someone commencing a PhD.
- On the minus side, I want to go into greater depth, and have other projects on the go – most notably my Web-tools project.
Live Version of this Archived Note
Table of 12 Earlier Versions of this Note (of 56)
Table of 12 Later Versions of this Note (of 42)
Summary of Notes Links from this Page
To access information, click on one of the links in the table above (if any).
Summary of Note Links to this Page
To access information, click on one of the links in the table above (if any).
Text Colour Conventions
- Blue: Text by me; © Theo Todman, 2026