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Status Reports - Status: Summary (2018 - September)

Rationale for this Report


Projects in Progress
Planning and Actuals
Detailed Interim Activities

Plans for the Near Future24
  1. Thesis25
    1. Continue with my Thesis26; in particular fill out those sections that I can write something on without further research. Make progress on specific Chapters, using the materials below →
    2. Chapter 227 (What Are We?). Focussing on:-
      1. Human Beings: "Johnston (Mark) - 'Human Beings' Revisited: My Body is Not an Animal".
      2. Persons: "Cottingham (John) - Why we are not 'persons'".
      3. Selves:-
        1. "Dainton (Barry) - Self: Philosophy In Transit",
        2. "O'Hear (Anthony), Ed. - Mind, Self and Person".
    3. Chapter 528 (Persistence and Time). Focussing on:-
      1. "Botros (Sophie) - Truth, Time and History: A Philosophical Enquiry",
      2. "Miller (Kristie) - Issues in Theoretical Diversity: Persistence, Composition, and Time",
      3. "Rovelli (Carlo) - The Order of Time",
      4. "Wiggins (David) - Continuants: Their Activity, Their Being, and Their Identity",
      5. Complete "Lebens (Samuel) & Goldschmidt (Tyron) - The Promise of a New Past", and send to Sophie Botros & Michael J. Alter,
      6. Complete running through relevant pages from Robert O. Doyle.
    4. Chapter 629 (Animalism). Focussing on:-
      1. "Olson (Eric) - The Human Animal - Personal Identity Without Psychology", my core text,
      2. "Merricks (Trenton) - Objects and Persons",
      3. "Bailey (Andrew M.) - The Elimination Argument",
      4. "Olson (Eric) - On Parfit's View That We Are Not Human Beings",
      5. "Olson (Eric) - The Metaphysical Implications of Conjoined Twining",
      6. "Olson (Eric) - The Role of the Brainstem in Personal Identity",
      7. "Shoemaker (Sydney) - Persons, Animals, and Identity",
      8. "Snowdon (Paul) - Persons, Animals, Ourselves",
      9. Review "Hershenov (David) - Review of David DeGrazia’s Human Identity and Bioethics".
      10. Review the work of Elselijn Kingma.
    5. Chapter 730 (The Constitution View):-
      1. Start a serious review of "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - Persons and Bodies: A Constitution View", my other core text.
      2. Write up reviews of papers in "Baker (Lynne Rudder), Etc. - E-Symposium on 'Persons & Bodies: A Constitution View'".
      3. Read and review "Corcoran (Kevin) - Rethinking Human Nature: A Christian Materialist Alternative to the Soul".
      4. Write a Note on "Loose (Jonathan) - Constitution and the Falling Elevator".
    6. Chapter 1031 (Thought Experiments):-
      1. Investigate Transhumanism32. In particular,
        1. Read "Bridle (James) - New Dark Age: Technology and the End of the Future",
        2. Briefly review "O'Connell (Mark) - To be a Machine",
        3. Read "Bostrom (Nick) - Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies",
        4. Detailed review of "Graziano (Michael) - Endless fun",
        5. Complete "Midgley (Mary) - Biotechnology and Monstrosity: Why We Should Pay Attention to the 'Yuk Factor'",
        6. Complete review of "Shipley (G.J.) - Review of Andy Clark's 'Natural-Born Cyborgs'",
        7. Complete reading, then review "Harari (Yuval Noah) - Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow".
        8. Read & review "Fry (Hannah) - Hello World: How to be Human in the Age of the Machine".
    7. Chapter 1133 (Resurrection):-
      1. Start a thorough review of "Martin (L. Michael) & Augustine (Keith) - The Myth of an Afterlife: The Case against Life After Death",
      2. Start a review of "Luper (Steven), Ed. - The Cambridge Companion to Life and Death", especially
        → "Olson (Eric) - The Nature of People",
      3. Start a review of "Bradley (Ben), Feldman (Fred) & Johansson (Jens) - The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Death", especially
        → "Zimmerman (Dean) - Personal Identity and the Survival of Death",
      4. Read and review
        → "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - Death and the Afterlife", and
        → "Corcoran (Kevin) - Dualism, Materialism and the Problem of Post Mortem Survival".
      5. Write a file-note on "Barua (Ankur) - Revisiting the Rationality of Reincarnation-Talk".
    8. As background tasks:-
      1. Convert old PDF-précis, Etc34 to Notes,
      2. Complete cataloguing the books downloaded from Springer,
      3. Continue with "Marshall (Richard) - Philosophy at 3:AM: Questions and Answers with 25 Top Philosophers",
      4. Complete reading:-
        → "Gazzaniga (Michael S.) - Who's in Charge? Free Will and the Science of the Brain"
        → "Hale (Sheila) - The Man Who Lost His Language"
        → "Heyes (Cecilia M.) - Cognitive Gadgets: The Cultural Evolution of Thinking"
        → "Rosling (Hans) - Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World – and Why Things Are Better Than You Think"
        → "Updike (John) - Self-Consciousness"
      5. Complete my Note on "Smith (Martin) - Why Throwing 92 Heads in a Row Is Not Surprising" and discuss with Pete & Mike.
      6. Continue reading and reviewing35 papers issued by Aeon,
      7. Attend Oliver Black’s Salon36(s),
      8. Keep up with the Journals via JSTOR & Cambridge Core37.
  2. Religion38
    1. Philosophy of Religion:
      1. Continue reading "Antony (Louise M.) - Philosophers without Gods: Meditations on Atheism and the Secular Life",
      2. Continue reading the Blog "Ferguson (Matthew) - Κέλσος".
    2. Resurrection: Continue reviewing39
      1. "Alter (Michael J.) - The Resurrection: A Critical Inquiry", and
      2. "Alter (Michael J.) - The Resurrection & Christian Apologetics: A Critical Inquiry Volume 2".
    3. Background:
      1. Read appropriate items from Aeon40.
      2. Continue reading "Finkelstein (Israel) & Silberman (Neil Asher) - The Bible Unearthed".
      3. Attend the OBT Conference41 OBT: How to Read the Bible with Greater Confidence (http://www.obt.org.uk/events?product_id=716).
  3. Website42
    1. Own Website: Priority 1 Items By Category:-
      • Architecture
        1. As revealed by Spider: Old links in unregenerated pages. 8 Items.
        2. Complete XRef-re-engineering project:-
          1. Ensure all links and link-pages use the new XRef table, and pension off the old tables.
          2. Check all link-types still work and fix any errors.
          3. Complete the auto-triggering of regeneration of “associated” link pages.
          4. Fix update bug in Convert_Webrefs.
          5. Fix Bug whereby PaperSummary pages seem to have “Works-” and “Books/Papers-” Citings that refer to the same link-pages.
        3. Review effectiveness of hyperlinking method in the light of PhD and Philosophy of Religion experience.
        4. Where possible, use ID rather than NAME for in-page hyperlinks
      • Authors
        1. As revealed by Spider: Philosophers_Index_List_OA.htm. Author Names Scrambled. 133 items.
        2. As revealed by Spider: Sundry broken Links where author name corrected. 93 items.
      • Backups
        1. Review architecture to improve performance; Need to document first
      • Books/Papers
        1. Investigate whether multiple Subject/Topic/Subtopic usage leads anywhere (ie. are just the first (of 3) actually used). Fix anything amiss.
      • Documenter
        1. Provide Functional Documentation for Website Generator (using Notes)
      • Education
        1. Continue with Harvard CS50's Web Programming with Python and JavaScript (https://www.edx.org/course/cs50s-web-programming-with-python-and-javascript-0): either complete it, or check it'll still run in 2019.
        2. Investigate Bootstrap.
        3. Plan what to do with "Sitepoint (Learnable) - Sitepoint Learnable Web Development Courses" and the eBooks in my possession.
        4. Read "PC Pro - Computing in the Real World".
        5. Read "Barnes (Russell), Ed. - Web Designer".
        6. Re-start "Harvard University - CS50 Introduction to Computer Science". Maybe just "audit".
        7. Understand Bitcoin & Blockchain better
      • Infrastructure
        1. Re-install iCloud: solve 'The upload folder for iCloud Photos is missing' problem
      • Notes
        1. Add "Note Alternates" to Note pages.
        2. Allow the option to concatenate Notes in the Printed version (ie. linearly embed them essay-style), rather than treating the hyperlinks as footnotes – but still keep the hyperlink & cross-referencing in place.
          1. For use as "disclaimers" - eg. for "Plug Notes".
          2. For Thesis / essays: the difficulty here is the need for linking passages to make the text run smoothly.
        3. As revealed by Spider: #Reference links: fail for Printable Notes. 24 items.
        4. As revealed by Spider: Consciousness Status Report43 Achived Notes - sundry links failing. Live Note OK. 46 items. 24 items outstanding.
        5. As revealed by Spider: Blog44 Achived Notes - sundry links to Printable Notes. Live Note OK. 110 items. 100 items outstanding.
        6. As revealed by Spider: Links to sundry 'static' pages failing. 26 items. 20 items outstanding.
        7. As revealed by Spider: Old links from Archive Notes to (non-existent) Archived Printable Notes. 42 items.
        8. As revealed by Spider: Status Reports - Achived Notes - sundry links failing. Live Notes fixed.
          1. Website: Maintenance Dashboard45. 14 items.
          2. Personal Identity Status Report46. 11 items.
          3. Summary Status Report47. 4 items.
          4. Actual Detail Summary Report48. 6 items.
          5. Chess Status Report49. 12 items.
          6. Etc.
        9. As revealed by Spider: Sundry links fail for Supervisions. 31 items.
        10. Created auto-regen of all Note Link (Note_nnn_Link) Pages
        11. Investigate Note_Links: Section references seem to be incorrect
        12. Printable Notes: fix the bug whereby the “private” flag is round the wrong way.
        13. Suppress the publication of the Printable versions of Temp Notes
      • Photos
        1. Add photos of Tom - Create Timeline software
        2. Develop software & procedure to make adding more content to the photos pages easier to undertake.
      • Process
        1. As revealed by Spider: Sundry uncategorised. Refs failing. 24 items.
        2. Determine why Recalculation & Changed Book/Papers produce unneeded regeneration.
      • Spider
        1. Analyse the results of the data collection exercise and design a plan of campaign to fix broken Internal links and prevent recurrence.
          1. Correct the code so the problems discovered by the Spider don’t recur.
          2. Delete 'orphan pages' that are never linked to, ie. Use the Spider to prune redundant pages50 automatically where possible.
          3. Fix the historical data where errors are uncovered by the Spider. An easier task now the site has a full-regen function.
        2. Determine why Full_Link_Up_Levels_Gen takes so long - approximately 3 hours. May need to re-architect.
        3. The Spider was generating WebRefs. Procedurally, this ought not to have been possible.
          1. The major problem turned out to be because unprocessed51 URLs got added to the end of the last WebLinks_Tester_Brief page, which then got Spidered. I've stopped this happening, so hopefully the problem will not recur. The fix was made in 18Q2.
          2. However, 4 other creations appeared - dated 18/05/18 - from the run of 10/07/18. The creation date was from the previous spider run, but the IDs show that they were produced in the latest run.
          I've re-opened the case!
      • Technology
        1. Look into Sistrix Smart52. Errors and warnings itemised are:-
          1. Duplicate content: seems to be theotodman.com and Link - Defunct
          2. Title Tags: Empty, too long, identical
          3. Page Not Found
          4. Filesize in excess of 1Mb
          5. Meta-Description: Empty
          6. Few words on Page
          7. H1: Not used, used multiple times per page, identical across pages
          8. Pictures: Alt attribute missing
      • WebRefs
        1. As revealed by Spider: WebLinks_Tester_Full_Map.htm (etc). Refs failing. 116 items.
        2. As revealed by Spider: WebLinks_Tester_Map_3.htm (etc). Refs failing. 21 items.
        3. Documentation & Bug-fixes: Phase 2
          1. Re-document the procedures in the light of recent changes.
          2. Resolve issues generated / revealed by the spider.
          3. Investigate - and fix where possible - broken links.
    2. Other Websites: Priority 1 Items By Category:-
      • Bridge
        1. Create "Small Sites" database for Alaric (if chased)
      • Enigma
        1. Termly updates to the Enigma Ensemble (http://www.enigmaensemble.co.uk/) Website.
      • Sophie
        1. Periodic updates to Sophie Botros: Live Site (http://www.sophiebotros.com/)
  4. Music53
    1. Oboe:-
      1. Practice the oboe for two 30-minute sessions each and every day54 – focussing on the items below and …
      2. Occasionally combine into an hour-long session to build up stamina further.
      3. Attend the six sessions of The Enigma Ensemble.
      4. Run through the Enigma Ensemble portfolio, practicing the active pieces.
      5. Work through, and perfect, scales & arpeggios55 for Grades I-VI, using
        → "Trinity Guildhall - Trinity Guildhall Scales & Arpeggios for Oboe (Grades 1–8)", and
        → "ABRSM - Scales and Arpeggios for Oboe, Grades 1-8 (ABRSM Scales & Arpeggios)".
      6. Prepare Grade VI pieces, in particular
        → "Boni (Giovanni) - Sonata in G" (Prelude only),
        → "Miller (Vojislav) & Liebermann (Winfried), Eds. - Test Pieces for Orchestral Auditions (Orchester Probespiel) - Oboe",
        → "Morricone (Ennio) - Gabriel's Oboe (Piano Solo Or Oboe/Piano)",
        → "Davies (John) & Harris (Paul) - 80 Graded Studies for Oboe: Book 2" (Blatt - Study No. 52)
      7. Read and apply oboe practice techniques recommended by Martin Schuring.
      8. Read "Caplan (Stephen) - Oboe: The Breathing Book".
    2. Piano: Try to develop some competence as an aid to theory, so:-
      1. Complete working through "Rhodes (James) - How to Play the Piano",
      2. Work through "ABRSM - Selected Piano Exam Pieces 2009-2010: Grade 1", and
      3. Try to play by ear, using for inspiration:-
        → "Cannel (Ward) & Marx (Fred) - How to Play the Piano Despite Years of Lessons: What Music Is and How to Make It at Home".
    3. Theory: Prepare for Grade 5 Theory, so:-
      1. Study
        → "Taylor (Eric) - The AB Guide to Music Theory - Part 1", and
        → "Taylor (Eric) - The AB Guide to Music Theory - Part 2",
      2. Do the exercises in
        → "Taylor (Eric) - Music Theory in Practice: Grade 1",
        → "Taylor (Eric) - Music Theory in Practice: Grade 2",
        → "Taylor (Eric) - Music Theory in Practice: Grade 3",
        → "Taylor (Eric) - Music Theory in Practice: Grade 4", and
        → "Taylor (Eric) - Music Theory in Practice: Grade 5",
    4. Aural:
      1. Run through "ABRSM - Aural Training In Practice: Book 1 - Grades 1-3"
      2. Get a grip on the process of ear-training by reading "Deutsch (Diana) - Absolute Pitch", and related material56.
  5. Chess57
    1. Training versus Mephisto Monte Carlo.
    2. Training using Chess.com (https://www.chess.com/).
    3. Read "van der Sterren (Paul) - FCO - Fundamental Chess Openings", with assistance from the above.
    4. Read "Chess - Chess Magazine"; work through the “How Good Is Your Chess” articles.
    5. Full participation in Billericay Chess Club:-
      → Club Nights
      → Club Championship
      → NECL matches
  6. Consciousness58
    1. Re-read and write notes on "Papineau (David) - Introducing Consciousness",
    2. Re-read and review notes on "Crane (Tim) - Elements of Mind - An Introduction to the Philosophy of Mind",
    3. Read "Dehaene (Stanislas) - Consciousness and the Brain: Deciphering How the Brain Codes Our Thoughts",
    4. Read appropriate papers from Aeon59.
  7. Languages60
    1. Thai: Following Nat's emigration to Thailand:-
      → "Lonely Planet - Lonely Planet Thai Phrasebook & Dictionary",
      → "Becker (Benjawan Poomsan) - Thai for Beginners",
      → "ThaiNotes - Thai Notes",
      → "Wikipedia - Thai Alphabet", and
      → "Wikipedia - Thai Language".
    2. Egyptian (Ancient):
    3. Maltese:
      → Wikipedia: Maltese language (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maltese_language)
  8. Mathematics61
    1. Read papers from Aeon as they arise.
    2. Browse "Gowers (Timothy), Barrow-Green (June) & Leader (Imre), Eds. - The Princeton Companion to Mathematics",
    3. Complete reading "Shapiro (Stewart) - Thinking about Mathematics - The Philosophy of Mathematics",
    4. Analyze "Smith (Martin) - Why Throwing 92 Heads in a Row Is Not Surprising".
  9. HiQ62
    1. ISPE
    2. Mensa
      • Nothing planned.
  10. Bridge63
    1. Meet up with former partners from time to time.
    2. Return to playing bridge at most once a week if encouraged to do so.
    3. Read "Reading - Bridge - Magazines".


In-Page Footnotes

Footnote 1:
  • Since the contents of the groups changes over time, this justification for their segregation isn’t entirely accurate.
Footnote 12:
  • Mind you, the mathematical bits didn’t function very well in my youth, so what hope is there now?
Footnote 14:
  • Due to administrative confusion, I needlessly took their latest entrance test. After chasing them up I was told I “passed with flying colours”, but could get no more information.
Footnote 15:
  • Coxes Farm hails from the 16th century, or possibly earlier, and is very “wonky”, requiring continual maintenance.
  • In December 2017, a base to roof crack appeared in the render at the front.
  • Subsequent investigations revealed that the frame at the front – which had been added in the 17th century – has rotted away, so the front façade was held up by the brick infill and an impervious cement render, the cause of the rot.
  • I’m writing a Blog Item on this saga, with some theoretical thoughts, which I hope to have published in due course.
Footnote 19:
  • In 18Q2 – at 25 hours / week – it represented the amount of time that I’d need to spend if I were pursuing my research part-time at Birkbeck – which would be something like 5 hours / day, 5 days a week.
Footnote 20:
  • As my purchasing has now dropped to a relative trickle, I’ve extended the selection range to cover the last 6 months.
  • Some of these are random purchases from charity shops, or presents. Others are selectively purchased in support of my various projects.
  • Poverty and lack of space is severely curtailing my purchasing power.
Footnote 21:
  • Or at least those recently added to my database, in the case of electronic items that sometimes arrive too fast to be catalogued immediately.
Footnote 24:
  • In the light of the segregation of my projects into three tiers, items for tertiary projects are only to be addressed if everything of higher priority is in shape.
Footnote 35:
  • Try to keep up to date, but only read those that are strictly relevant – ignore the rest!
  • At present I have a relatively small reading-backlog, and a much larger reviewing-backlog.
  • Try to add a brief comment for each paper – maybe at the expense of reading the full text!
Footnote 36: Footnote 39:
  • While I couldn't submit to Michael Alter's deadlines and the amount of work required, I ought to at least read these books.
Footnote 41:
  • Julie and I attended the first part of this conference in April, in Reading, but we had to escape early as the lock on our back door in Billericay had broken and Nat couldn’t get in.
Footnote 50:
  • Note that Backup_Prune_Ctrl deletes (relevant) pages that weren't regenerated in the last full site-regen, but this isn't the same thing.
Footnote 51:
  • These are URLs that were used in web pages but hadn't yet been converted to the +WnnnW+ format, so appeared at the end with no WebRef ID.
Footnote 52:
  • See Sistrix (https://www.sistrix.com/smart/)
  • This used to be called Optimizr, see Optimizr (http://www.optimizr.com/) (which now auto-forwards to Sistrix).
  • A quick look doesn’t show it to be an obvious scam, but I need to double-check.
  • An unsolicited analysis of my site turned up monthly from Optimizr from January 2015 to October 2017, listing a large number of “problems” that I think I know about, but which are in the queue to address.
  • It restarted in February 2018, under the Sistrix name (this seems to have been associated with Optimizr since November 2015).
  • The free version of this software is restricted to 1,000 pages, which is a very small proportion of my Site, though I may be able to point it to difference base-URLs.
  • But I do need to address the problems validly itemised, and a sub-set is still useful.
Footnote 54:
  • Well, maybe with the occasional holiday, and excluding days on which I have a lesson or the Enigma Ensemble.
Footnote 55:
  • I don't intend to present these for the Trinity exams, as I can present Orchestral Audition pieces instead; but they are essential for technique.
Footnote 56: Ie. The following:-

Note last updated: 10/10/2018 16:43:41

Footnote 2: (Status: Personal Identity (2018 - September))

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 Religion 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.
  • The best place to find my current views is here.
  • The jumping-off point for my thesis is here, and a progress dashboard is here, though neither of these has changes for some considerable time.

Summary of Progress during July - September 2018
  1. I spent 239 hours in 3Q18 on this Project, or related work (1143 hours YTD, where for "YTD" - Year to Date - I mean the (academic) year that commenced in October 2017). That's 92% of the planned effort (95% YTD). Overall, 41% of my Project effort in the Quarter was directed towards this project (making 47% YTD) - as against 51% planned (47% YTD).
  2. My planned effort was 20 hours / week5. Unfortunately, like last quarter, I failed to achieving it – though wasn’t too far off. Moreover, most of the effort expended was on relevant items!
  3. The main focus of the quarter was that I continued updating my Notes on Personal Identity. As noted in recent reports, I had decided to change my approach in the short term. Rather than spending ages researching the reading lists, I’d intended just to list those books / papers on the relevant topic that I’ve actually read, and supply brief text. However, I’ve been using my auto-XRef routines to develop the reading lists, which – while useful – has held things up a bit. As a second pass I’ll use what I’ve read to update that text.
  4. The detailed list below reflects the Notes updated together with associated papers where I could be bothered to record time against these separately.
  5. In addition:-
  6. Progress between reports can be obtained from the relevant section of my Summary Task List. More detail follows:-
Thesis (Total Hours = 193.75)
  1. Thesis - Reading / Writing (Total Hours = 170)
  2. Thesis - Discussions (Total Hours = 2.5)
  3. Thesis - Research Repositioning (Total Hours = 21.25)

Thesis Background (Total Hours = 41.25)
  1. Thesis Background - Reading / Writing (Total Hours = 31.5)
  2. Thesis Background - Books Admin (Total Hours = 3.25)
  3. Thesis Background - Status

Thesis (Aeon)

Plans for the Near Future – Top Priority Tasks
Summary of Progress to Date

This was hived off to a separate Note back in 2010, and hasn’t changed much since.



In-Page Footnotes

Footnote 5:
  • 25 hours / week is approximately what I’d expect to put in to a part-time PhD. However, this seems unachievable at the moment.
Footnote 7:
  • Hopefully, I may complete, or get stuck, earlier.
  • I had hoped to complete this phase of my research by my 65th birthday – ie. by 13/11/2018. Previously, I’ve remarked “This is not to slip!” Unfortunately, the distraction of the problems with Coxes Farm – as well as a general lack of focus – have meant that it has.
  • On the plus side, I’m already much further advanced than would be expected of someone commencing a PhD.
  • On the minus side, I want to go into much greater depth, and have other projects on the go – most notably Music, Philosophy of Religion, Chess and – particularly – my Web-tools project.
  • The original reason for deferring to my 65th birthday was that this is when I get my State Pension. This may not be much, but it’ll make a significant contribution towards the fees and expenses, which I can’t currently afford.
  • Unfortunately, my state pension is likely to be more than gobbled up by payments on the mortgage I’ve managed to obtain for Coxes Farm.
Footnote 8:
  • This used to say “complete a thesis …”, which is obviously impossible, given that my idea of a thesis is way in excess of what is required.
Footnote 10:
  • This is still ludicrously inadequate for what I want to achieve, but is what would be expected of a part-time research student.
Footnote 12:
  • This is obviously far too long, and keeps getting items “carried forward” tacked on to it.
  • Maybe I’ll prune it next time.
Footnote 22:
  • Try to keep up to date, but only read those that are strictly relevant – ignore the rest!
  • At present I have a relatively small reading-backlog, and a much larger reviewing-backlog.
  • Try to add a brief comment for each paper – maybe at the expense of reading the full text!
Footnote 23:

Note last updated: 10/10/2018 16:43:41

Footnote 4: (Status: Web-Tools (2018 - September))

Rationale for this Project

  • This Project was alluded to briefly in a footnote on research methodology in my original Research Proposal under the head Research - Internet Technology. When last at Birkbeck, I wrote a more extensive paper defending the Project and describing its rationale. Now that my PhD is in suspense, I have decided to take this Project further. There’s a lot to do: still quite a few items on the “wish list”. It is fairly critical as an enabler for my research, so I need to get a move on as I want it all out of the way before I re-start4 formal research.
  • For documentation on my website (currently password protected) follow the links below:-
    1. Functional5 Documentation.
    2. Technical7 Documentation.
  • Other Websites
    1. Sometime around 2005, I created a website for Dr. Sophie Botros (Sophie Botros: Live Site (http://www.sophiebotros.com/)), one of my supervisors at Birkbeck, but we then lost touch and it got maintained (very badly) by some desktop support outfit. In 2Q15 I took it back on again and spruced it up a bit, and maintain it periodically, though it still requires more work.
    2. I created and / or ran a multitude of bridge websites, but as of January 2018 I have either handed them over or mothballed them9:-
      1. I established the Hutton Bridge Club (http://www.bridgewebs.com/hutton.html) Website in 4Q11 using the standard Bridgewebs service, but with a couple of competitions using my own routines. This was handed over in 3Q15.
      2. In 1Q15, I took over the support and development of the Essex Contract Bridge Association (http://www.bridgewebs.com/essex/) (ECBA) website, which also uses Bridgewebs, but is very much larger. I wrote a lot of code10 to make this job less tedious. The site was handed over in 4Q17.
      3. For several years, I collected data11 on bridge activity in the Billericay / Brentwood area (initially needed for a project to set up a new consolidated club) – by “scraping” data off web pages, consolidating it into a database and modelling it in various ways.
      4. I used this data to generate websites with a multitude of ladders for small clubs (Essex Bridge Results (http://www.theotodman.com/Bridge/index.htm)). These are now mothballed.
      5. I created and maintained a new website for the First Class Bridge (http://www.bridgewebs.com/firstclassbridge/) Academy, giving it “small clubs” ladders as these were easy to maintain with little intervention.
      6. In 3Q16 I revived the Mountnessing Bridge Club Archive (http://mountnessing.theotodman.com/index.shtml) website.
    3. I’ve created and continue to maintain a small website for a music group Julie and I attend – the Enigma Ensemble (http://www.enigmaensemble.co.uk/).
    4. I created a website for displaying the textual and grammatical analyses and appendices of Pete’s PhD on the Acts of the Apostles. It exists in two versions: Acts: Live Site (http://www.acts-research.website/) and Acts: Test Site (http://www.theotodman.com/Petes_PhD/index.htm).
  • I did consider returning to work part-time as an MS Access/Excel developer, with a spin-off into website generation, but have done nothing about it so far.

Summary of Progress during July - September 2018
  1. I spent 141 hours in 3Q18 on this Project, or related work (643 hours YTD, where for "YTD" - Year to Date - I mean the (academic) year that commenced in October 2017). That's 90% of the planned effort (93% YTD). Overall, 24% of my Project effort in the Quarter was directed towards this project (making 27% YTD) - as against 31% planned (27% YTD).
  2. Again, I made no progress at all on the course put out by Harvard - "Harvard University - CS50 Introduction to Computer Science". I still intend to make a serious attempt to complete it sometime (I will need to re-start). However, I decided to precede it with the follow-on course Harvard CS50's Web Programming with Python and JavaScript (https://www.edx.org/course/cs50s-web-programming-with-python-and-javascript-0) which is more immediately relevant. I made a start, but then other things took over towards the end of the month.
  3. I’d been on course to exceed budget, but decisions on other projects – in particular Music and Chess – got in the way towards the end of the quarter, so I only achieved 90% of plan in the end.
  4. However, I did manage to spend almost 140 hours developing my own site and did a lot of useful work.
  5. Completed items included:-
    • Architecture
      1. Added 'TT' shortcut icon on all Webpage browser tabs
    • Authors
      1. Authors Narrative: enable footnotes.
      2. As revealed by Spider: 'Extra' Links to Notes from Citations List have the wrong directory (clumped in 1,000's like Papers rather than 100's). 7 items. Problem with AddCitations_List, so not just an issue for Authors.
    • Books
      1. As revealed by Spider: BookCitings. 405 items. Fixed problem with CreateBookCitingsWebPages not checking for change of Book during 'Repeats' processing.
    • Books/Papers
      1. Paper & Book Abstracts - Make 'Disclaimer' more prominent & show 'Paper Statistics' rather than 'Paper Summaries'
    • Bridge
      1. Reformated + Fixed Hand-dealing pages to CSS standards
    • Documenter
      1. Created Functor using Form_Documentation_Links to automatically add control-links to documentation Notes.
      2. Fixed Bug where a variable has the same name as a procedure, and is thereby confused with one. Produced a warning query (Variable_Code_Name_Clashes) for manual correction.
    • Footnotes
      1. Enabled the re-use of Footnotes in the same Note12. They appeared multiple times, now just once. Fixed for:-
        1. Notes (OutputNotesWebPage)
        2. Printable Notes (NoteForPrinting), and
        3. Archived Notes (OutputNotesWebPage_Archived)
        All of which use Notes_Text_Format and the Note_Footnotes table. Also,
        1. Book & Paper Abstracts & Comments used to use an array in Reference_Footnotes, but changed to use a new table13 Abstract_Footnotes.
    • Notes
      1. Created auto-regen of all Note Link (Note_nnn_Link) Pages
      2. Automatic Key-word Hyperlinking to Notes Project: Phase 2
        1. Added links based on Book & Paper Titles
        2. Added ***Read***-marker to Lists
        3. Allowed links to be ignored (rather than suppressed) during approval process
        4. Skip links to Status Reports, etc.
      3. As revealed by Spider: Notes_List_Control links fail for Supervisions. 58 items.
      4. As revealed by Spider: Links to Notes_xxx_Links, from Abstracts (94 items), Notes (25 … corrected manually), NotesPrint (1916). Fixed by +LL+ functor implementation.
      5. As revealed by Spider: Bridge Status Report Achived Notes - sundry links failing. Live Note OK. 70 items.
      6. As revealed by Spider: Languages Status Report Achived Notes - links to Dissertation failing. Live Note OK. 43 items.
      7. As revealed by Spider: Religion Status Report Achived Notes - sundry links failing. Live Note OK. 59 items.
      8. Created new '+LL+' Functor for links to Note_Link pages; fixed associated Notes.
      9. Blog: Created Functor to generate Blog from Blog.
    • Photos
      1. Fix Bug: photos in Abstracts with embedded Notes - eg. "Grossman (Lev), Kurzweil (Ray) - 2045: The Year Man Becomes Immortal" - not displaying
      2. As revealed by Spider: Fixed ImageRef to work for both embedded ('SRC') & linked images on the same page - eg. Carthusians. 12 items.
    • Status
      1. Status: Summary - Actual versus Plan between quarters says "previous quarter"; should be "current quarter"
  6. Full details for 18Q3 are given below:-
Website (Total Hours = 139)
  1. Website - Bridge Development
  2. Website - Development (Total Hours = 97)
    • Author Name Format options (Surname, First-Name) (0.5 hours)
    • Automatic Key-word Hyperlinking to Notes Project: Add links based on Book & Paper Titles (1.5 hours)
    • Automatic Key-word Hyperlinking to Notes Project: Add Read-marker to Lists (1 hour)
    • Automatic Key-word Hyperlinking to Notes Project: Allow links to be ignored (1 hour)
    • Automatic Key-word Hyperlinking to Notes Project: Automate full regeneration (6.25 hours)
    • Automatic Key-word Hyperlinking to Notes Project: Bug for Suppressed Links in Book-Paper Abstracts (1 hour)
    • Automatic Key-word Hyperlinking to Notes Project: Refinement of 'outstanding' counts (0.5 hours)
    • Automatic Key-word Hyperlinking to Notes Project: Refinement of title re Exclusions (1 hour)
    • Automatic Key-word Hyperlinking to Notes Project: Skip links to Status Reports, etc. (0.5 hours)
    • Technology: Added TT shortcut icon (1 hour)
    • Technology: Added 'TT' shortcut icon (0.25 hours)
    • Technology: Look into Sistrix Smart (2 hours)
    • Website - Generator - Allow Footnotes for Author Abstracts (1 hour)
    • Website - Generator - Allowed links to both embedded ('SRC') & linked Images on the same page (1.75 hours)
    • Website - Generator - BookCitings Links failing (2.75 hours)
    • Website - Generator - Bridge - Reformat + Fix Hand-dealing pages to CSS standards (4.75 hours)
    • Website - Generator - Create Functor for adding code links to Website Functional Documentation (2 hours)
    • Website - Generator - Create Functor to generate Blog (4 hours)
    • Website - Generator - Create new '+LL+' Functor for links to Note_Link pages (5 hours)
    • Website - Generator - Documenter Bug-fixes: Confusion of Variables with Procedure Names (0.75 hours)
    • Website - Generator - General: Tidy up Site - delete un-updated pages (3.5 hours)
    • Website - Generator - Improve efficiency of Quarterly + YTD Task List Generation (0.75 hours)
    • Website - Generator - Links from Notes_List_Control failing for Supervisions (0.5 hours)
    • Website - Generator - Links from old Status Reports failing (4.25 hours)
    • Website - Generator - Links to Images in embedded Notes in Abstracts failing (0.75 hours)
    • Website - Generator - Maintain consolidated Development Log (3.75 hours)
    • Website - Generator - Paper & Book Abstracts - Clarify Disclaimer & 'Summaries' (2 hours)
    • Website - Generator - Problem with AddCitations_List and directory for links to 'Extra' Notes (0.5 hours)
    • Website - Generator - Re-Document Front Screen (5 hours)
    • Website - Generator - Remove duplicate footnotes (7.5 hours)
    • Website - Generator - Status: Summary - Actual versus Plan; Say 'Current' Quarter if current quarter (0.75 hours)
    • Website - Generator - Stop Test Note generating Book & Paper Links (0.5 hours)
    • Website - Generator - Web Spider - Check out & correct missing links (8.25 hours)
    • Website - Generator - Web Spider - Documentation & Diagnostics (9 hours)
    • Website - Generator - Web Spider - Investigate Run-time (0.25 hours)
    • Website - Generator - WebRefs - Add Test Page Regen to Maintenance Dashboard (2.25 hours)
    • Website - Generator - WebRefs - Check out Quarterly Detail Report - Paper Links (0.75 hours)
    • Website - Generator - WebRefs - Investigation & Correction of Errored URLs (7.25 hours)
    • Website - Generator - WebRefs - Run periodic full check (0.25 hours)
    • Website - Generator - WebRefs - Spurious entries generated by Spider (0.75 hours)
      → See "Software Development - Website - Development"
  3. Website - Education (Total Hours = 16.25)
  4. Website - Infrastructure (Total Hours = 6.75)
    • Check out theo.todman@cantab.net email account (0.25 hours)
    • iCloud Photos directory problem after Windows 10 release - turned off iCloud (1.25 hours)
    • Investigating repairing unreadable DVDs (0.25 hours)
    • Julie's Laptop Support - Including Windows 10 Bugs & Upgrades (0.25 hours)
    • Microsoft Windows 10 / MS Office - Releases & Bugs (0.5 hours)
    • Microsoft Windows 10 / MS Office - Releases, Bugs & Periodic Re-boots (2.25 hours)
    • PC Backups / OneDrive (1 hour)
    • Printer Toner + Paper (0.25 hours)
    • Review Webalizer stats & methodology documentation (0.25 hours)
    • Website - Namesco Email problems (0.5 hours)
      → See "Software Development - Website - Development"
  5. Website - Maintenance (Total Hours = 16.75)
    • 18Q2 Status Reports (4.25 hours)
    • Website - Generator - General: Tidy up Site - delete un-updated pages (2.25 hours)
    • Website - Generator - WebRefs - Manual URL Checks (0.5 hours)
    • Website - Periodic Full Regeneration (6.5 hours)
    • Website - Run Web Spider (2.25 hours)
    • Website - ZoomSearch database refresh (1 hour)
      → See "Software Development - Website - Development"

Website Others (Total Hours = 1.75)
  1. Website Others - Bernie's Website Development
  2. Website Others - Enigma Ensemble
    • Enigma Ensemble Website - Creation, Admin & Maintenance (1 hour)


Plans for the Near Future

I’ve retained the planned weekly effort on this project at 12 hours. While there’s still a lot on the “priority list”, my intention for the coming academic year is to focus on updating my technical competence. The Plan below is taken automatically from the Priority 1 items on my Development Log, as published in my Outstanding Developments Report.
  1. Own Website: Priority 1 Items By Category:-
    • Architecture
      1. As revealed by Spider: Old links in unregenerated pages. 8 Items.
      2. Complete XRef-re-engineering project:-
        1. Ensure all links and link-pages use the new XRef table, and pension off the old tables.
        2. Check all link-types still work and fix any errors.
        3. Complete the auto-triggering of regeneration of “associated” link pages.
        4. Fix update bug in Convert_Webrefs.
        5. Fix Bug whereby PaperSummary pages seem to have “Works-” and “Books/Papers-” Citings that refer to the same link-pages.
      3. Review effectiveness of hyperlinking method in the light of PhD and Philosophy of Religion experience.
      4. Where possible, use ID rather than NAME for in-page hyperlinks
    • Authors
      1. As revealed by Spider: Philosophers_Index_List_OA.htm. Author Names Scrambled. 133 items.
      2. As revealed by Spider: Sundry broken Links where author name corrected. 93 items.
    • Backups
      1. Review architecture to improve performance; Need to document first
    • Books/Papers
      1. Investigate whether multiple Subject/Topic/Subtopic usage leads anywhere (ie. are just the first (of 3) actually used). Fix anything amiss.
    • Documenter
      1. Provide Functional Documentation for Website Generator (using Notes)
    • Education
      1. Continue with Harvard CS50's Web Programming with Python and JavaScript (https://www.edx.org/course/cs50s-web-programming-with-python-and-javascript-0): either complete it, or check it'll still run in 2019.
      2. Investigate Bootstrap.
      3. Plan what to do with "Sitepoint (Learnable) - Sitepoint Learnable Web Development Courses" and the eBooks in my possession.
      4. Read "PC Pro - Computing in the Real World".
      5. Read "Barnes (Russell), Ed. - Web Designer".
      6. Re-start "Harvard University - CS50 Introduction to Computer Science". Maybe just "audit".
      7. Understand Bitcoin & Blockchain better
    • Infrastructure
      1. Re-install iCloud: solve 'The upload folder for iCloud Photos is missing' problem
    • Notes
      1. Add "Note Alternates" to Note pages.
      2. Allow the option to concatenate Notes in the Printed version (ie. linearly embed them essay-style), rather than treating the hyperlinks as footnotes – but still keep the hyperlink & cross-referencing in place.
        1. For use as "disclaimers" - eg. for "Plug Notes".
        2. For Thesis / essays: the difficulty here is the need for linking passages to make the text run smoothly.
      3. As revealed by Spider: #Reference links: fail for Printable Notes. 24 items.
      4. As revealed by Spider: Consciousness Status Report Achived Notes - sundry links failing. Live Note OK. 46 items. 24 items outstanding.
      5. As revealed by Spider: Blog Achived Notes - sundry links to Printable Notes. Live Note OK. 110 items. 100 items outstanding.
      6. As revealed by Spider: Links to sundry 'static' pages failing. 26 items. 20 items outstanding.
      7. As revealed by Spider: Old links from Archive Notes to (non-existent) Archived Printable Notes. 42 items.
      8. As revealed by Spider: Status Reports - Achived Notes - sundry links failing. Live Notes fixed.
        1. Website: Maintenance Dashboard. 14 items.
        2. Personal Identity Status Report. 11 items.
        3. Summary Status Report. 4 items.
        4. Actual Detail Summary Report. 6 items.
        5. Chess Status Report. 12 items.
        6. Etc.
      9. As revealed by Spider: Sundry links fail for Supervisions. 31 items.
      10. Created auto-regen of all Note Link (Note_nnn_Link) Pages
      11. Investigate Note_Links: Section references seem to be incorrect
      12. Printable Notes: fix the bug whereby the “private” flag is round the wrong way.
      13. Suppress the publication of the Printable versions of Temp Notes
    • Photos
      1. Add photos of Tom - Create Timeline software
      2. Develop software & procedure to make adding more content to the photos pages easier to undertake.
    • Process
      1. As revealed by Spider: Sundry uncategorised. Refs failing. 24 items.
      2. Determine why Recalculation & Changed Book/Papers produce unneeded regeneration.
    • Spider
      1. Analyse the results of the data collection exercise and design a plan of campaign to fix broken Internal links and prevent recurrence.
        1. Correct the code so the problems discovered by the Spider don’t recur.
        2. Delete 'orphan pages' that are never linked to, ie. Use the Spider to prune redundant pages27 automatically where possible.
        3. Fix the historical data where errors are uncovered by the Spider. An easier task now the site has a full-regen function.
      2. Determine why Full_Link_Up_Levels_Gen takes so long - approximately 3 hours. May need to re-architect.
      3. The Spider was generating WebRefs. Procedurally, this ought not to have been possible.
        1. The major problem turned out to be because unprocessed28 URLs got added to the end of the last WebLinks_Tester_Brief page, which then got Spidered. I've stopped this happening, so hopefully the problem will not recur. The fix was made in 18Q2.
        2. However, 4 other creations appeared - dated 18/05/18 - from the run of 10/07/18. The creation date was from the previous spider run, but the IDs show that they were produced in the latest run.
        I've re-opened the case!
    • Technology
      1. Look into Sistrix Smart29. Errors and warnings itemised are:-
        1. Duplicate content: seems to be theotodman.com and Link - Defunct
        2. Title Tags: Empty, too long, identical
        3. Page Not Found
        4. Filesize in excess of 1Mb
        5. Meta-Description: Empty
        6. Few words on Page
        7. H1: Not used, used multiple times per page, identical across pages
        8. Pictures: Alt attribute missing
    • WebRefs
      1. As revealed by Spider: WebLinks_Tester_Full_Map.htm (etc). Refs failing. 116 items.
      2. As revealed by Spider: WebLinks_Tester_Map_3.htm (etc). Refs failing. 21 items.
      3. Documentation & Bug-fixes: Phase 2
        1. Re-document the procedures in the light of recent changes.
        2. Resolve issues generated / revealed by the spider.
        3. Investigate - and fix where possible - broken links.
  2. Other Websites: Priority 1 Items By Category:-
    • Bridge
      1. Create "Small Sites" database for Alaric (if chased)
    • Enigma
      1. Termly updates to the Enigma Ensemble (http://www.enigmaensemble.co.uk/) Website.
    • Sophie
      1. Periodic updates to Sophie Botros: Live Site (http://www.sophiebotros.com/)

Summary of Progress to Date

This is hived off to various separate documents, which have now been harmonising and / or consolidated:-
  1. Summary of Progress to Date.
  2. Outstanding Developments,
  3. Functional Documentation,
  4. A summary of time expended across the years developing my website33 is at "Software Development - Website - Development".




In-Page Footnotes

Footnote 4:
  • Well, I’ve missed the boat, so will need to continue with both projects in parallel.
  • This was always likely to be necessary, as new features will always arise in use. It’s a prototype methodology, after all.
Footnote 5:
  • This is very tedious to produce and consequently is both incomplete and out of date.
Footnote 7:
  • This is much more fun, as it’s a purely technical task.
  • I’ve written a vastly-improved general-purpose technical documenter for MS Access.
Footnote 9:
  • It’s a shame to abandon the “mini websites” with all their ladders, as it’s rather well done.
  • However, I can’t waste time on these after I’ve abandoned bridge.
Footnote 10:
  • In particular, for the ECBA “Victor Ludorum” competition.
  • I cannot hand any of this code over, so the tedium will return, though not to me!
Footnote 11:
  • I had agreed to share this data sometime early in 2018
  • But will wait until asked again, as I doubt it’ll be of any real use to anyone.
Footnote 12:
  • This situation occurs in these reports, and elsewhere.
Footnote 13: Footnote 27:
  • Note that Backup_Prune_Ctrl deletes (relevant) pages that weren't regenerated in the last full site-regen, but this isn't the same thing.
Footnote 28:
  • These are URLs that were used in web pages but hadn't yet been converted to the +WnnnW+ format, so appeared at the end with no WebRef ID.
Footnote 29:
  • See Sistrix (https://www.sistrix.com/smart/)
  • This used to be called Optimizr, see Optimizr (http://www.optimizr.com/) (which now auto-forwards to Sistrix).
  • A quick look doesn’t show it to be an obvious scam, but I need to double-check.
  • An unsolicited analysis of my site turned up monthly from Optimizr from January 2015 to October 2017, listing a large number of “problems” that I think I know about, but which are in the queue to address.
  • It restarted in February 2018, under the Sistrix name (this seems to have been associated with Optimizr since November 2015).
  • The free version of this software is restricted to 1,000 pages, which is a very small proportion of my Site, though I may be able to point it to difference base-URLs.
  • But I do need to address the problems validly itemised, and a sub-set is still useful.
Footnote 33:
  • As distinct from developing other peoples’ websites – time which is also recorded against this project, but not against this task.

Note last updated: 10/10/2018 16:43:41

Footnote 10: (Status: Bridge (2018 - September))

Rationale for this Project

  • I showed some natural talent for bridge in my youth, and wanted to see how far I could get with a bit of application (but – given the breadth my other interests – without fanaticism).
  • However, this project has always needed to be kept rigorously in hand, something that has rarely been the case since I returned to the game.
  • Basically, Bridge is fun – and I do reasonably well, but not well enough.
  • I withdrew from the game2 for most of 2015, but returned in the final quarter. This absence allowed me to get things in perspective for a while - playing twice or three times a week, with the occasional tournament.
  • However, as from July 2017 I have now retired from the game again, though I still keep in touch with what’s going on via my bridge website activities.
  • I’m now committed to Billericay Chess Club3 for the coming season, so there’s definitely no time for serious Bridge. However, I’ve agreed with David, Colin and Albert that I may on rare occasions substitute for an absent partner.

General Status
  1. The items below relate to mid-2017 and before, when I used to play! They may become more relevant if I return to the game in any capacity.
  2. Statistics: by partner and club-category can be obtained by following these links – for the last quarter and to date.
  3. Recent Results: Follow this link. Further information can be found from my Bridge Page.
  4. Local Points:
    • 33,768, bagged to date, including 1,175 Blue Points, 98.56 Green Points and 0.22 Gold Points5.
    • That makes me a National Master. My next aim – if I play again – will be to achieve Premier National Master status (40,000 LPs, including 100 GPs) – so just there as far as GPs are concerned6, but still a long way to go for local points.
    • I think I had about 5,000 LPs from my student days, but never registered any, more’s the pity.
  5. EBU Grading:
    • My rating continued to decline in 3Q17, and was down to a mid Q by the time I stopped playing.
    • See Link (https://www.ebu.co.uk/ngs/) for full details of the scheme, and the summary and previous reports for my detailed meanderings over time.
  6. Summary of Progress to Date: I’ve hived off the history to a separate document.
  7. Further Details: of time expenditure against task are given below, extracted from the relevant version of my Summary Task List (which is regularly updated between Quarterly Status Reports).

Summary of Progress during July - September 2018
  1. I spent 22 hours in 3Q18 on this Project, or related work (61 hours YTD, where for "YTD" - Year to Date - I mean the (academic) year that commenced in October 2017). That's 56% of the planned effort (94% YTD). Overall, 4% of my Project effort in the Quarter was directed towards this project (making 3% YTD) - as against 8% planned (3% YTD).
  2. YTD Activity10
    Bridge (Total Hours = 61.25)
    1. Bridge - Reading / Writing (Total Hours = 17.5)
    2. Bridge - Admin (Total Hours = 27)
      • 17Q3 Status Reports (2 hours)
      • 18Q2 Status Reports (0.75 hours)
      • Bridge - Alaric re League Div 1 (0.5 hours)
      • Bridge - Convention Cards for Trish / Albert (0.25 hours)
      • Bridge - Discussion with Jon & Coral (0.25 hours)
      • Bridge - Discussions with Albert (0.25 hours)
      • Bridge - Discussions with David (3 hours)
      • Bridge - ECBA Website - Committee Involvement (0.25 hours)
      • Bridge - Email to David (2 hours)
      • Bridge - Margaret re Jurek (0.25 hours)
      • Bridge - Socialising with Colin (2 hours)
      • Bridge - Socialising with Tony (15.5 hours)
        → See "Admin - Bridge - Admin"
    3. Bridge - Play
      • Holiday - Estimation Whist / Black Maria (16.75 hours)
  3. Progress (if any) in the last quarter can be obtained from the relevant section of my Summary Task List.

Plans for the Near Future:
  • I’ve planned 2 hours a week on this project for 18Q4, in case the plan to act as an occasional substitute for absent partners comes to anything.
  • So,
    1. Meet up with former partners from time to time.
    2. Return to playing bridge at most once a week if encouraged to do so.
    3. Read "Reading - Bridge - Magazines".




In-Page Footnotes

Footnote 2:
  • When not playing, I didn’t miss the game at all, but maybe this was mainly because acting as the Essex County Bridge Association (ECBA) Webmaster performed as a psychological substitute.
  • However, I’ve not missed it over the last year or so either, and I no longer do any Webmastering.
Footnote 3: Footnote 5: These have been amortised over the years.

Footnote 6: Taking into account the BPs, which are converted at the rate 300 BPs = 1 GP.

Footnote 10:
  • As this project is substantially inactive, I don’t update the text between quarters other than at the end of the academic year.
  • Hence, the YTD Activity is to make this task easier, and to give a clearer idea of what – if anything – has been going on in the interim.

Note last updated: 10/10/2018 16:43:41

Footnote 11: (Status: Mathematics (2018 - September))



Rationale for this Project

  • This is rather an eccentric activity, partly an attempt to exorcise some ancient demon – the rather bruising experience of reading mathematics at King’s College Cambridge back in the mid 1970’s.
  • However, any modern educated person should be reasonably up to date with the mathematical sciences, and statistical and probability theory are essential tools for evaluating evidence, and are useful in Bridge! If only advanced mathematics wasn’t such a difficult subject.
  • This project is diverging from Mathematics per se to the Philosophy of Mathematics and other related subjects. For instance, Philosophy of Mathematics features in Philosophy of Religion by providing an analogy or model of the sort of necessary existence that God is supposed to have.

Summary of Progress during 17Q4 - 18Q3
  1. I have spent 19 hours YTD on this Project, or related work, where for "YTD" - Year to Date - I mean the (academic) year that commenced in October 2017). That's 146% of the planned effort. Overall, 1% of my Project effort YTD has been directed towards this project.
  2. Very little time spent on this project this year and – as noted above – none of it is real mathematics.
  3. It was interesting to come across Alan Macfarlane’s interviews with Ken Moody and his wife, Jean Bacon1.
  4. YTD Activity2
    Mathematics (Total Hours = 18.5)
    1. Mathematics - Reading / Writing (Total Hours = 11)
    2. Mathematics - Admin (Total Hours = 7.5)

  5. Progress (if any) in the last quarter can be obtained from the relevant section of my Summary Task List.

Plans for the Near Future:
Mathematical Resources



In-Page Footnotes

Footnote 1:
  • Ken Moody was Director of Studies in Mathematics at King’s when I was there, and for long thereafter.
  • I ran into the two of them in King’s at the tea prior to the 45th anniversary reunion for year 1973.
  • As an ice-breaker, I introduced myself as Ken’s worst-ever student. After saying there would have been a lot of competition, he agreed rather too readily, I thought.
  • So, the conversation got nowhere and Bob Richmond took over.
  • I did, however, have a quick chat with Jean about the interviews, which she was surprised to have been 10 years past.
Footnote 2:
  • As this project is substantially inactive, I don’t update the text between quarters other than at the end of the academic year.
  • Hence, the YTD Activity is to make this task easier, and to give a clearer idea of what – if anything – has been going on in the interim.
Footnote 4:
  • These are not left over from my Cambridge days as these few books were given away to my sister’s high-school in Gloucester by my mother during my brief sojourn with the Carthusians.
  • Rather, I found them going cheap in bulk at a local second-hand bookshop.
  • They are accessible via …this link.

Note last updated: 10/10/2018 16:43:41

Footnote 13: (Status: HiQ (2018 - September))

Rationale for this Project

  1. I was very active in Mensa and ISPE in the years prior to taking up formal study of philosophy at Birkbeck in 2000. Thereafter I was too busy, and no longer felt the need to contribute, so I let my memberships lapse.
  2. When I retired from HSBC at the end of 2010, and given that I was no longer involved in formal academic study, I re-joined both societies for a year to see how things were going, but then let my memberships lapse again.
  3. ISPE seemed no better than when I was involved last time. The Mensa SIGs seem active enough, but I didn’t have the time to contribute.
  4. I re-joined ISPE1 yet again for the calendar year 2017, to see what was going on, and renewed for 2018. Membership is cheaper now Telicom is electronic, so I intend to let my membership continue.
  5. Society Details:-
    • For Mensa – see Mensa (https://www.mensa.org.uk/). In 2010 I joined, or re-joined, a bundle of societies, but did nothing.
    • For ISPE – see ISPE (https://www.thethousand.com/). Since re-joining I have done nothing other than pay my dues and exchange friendly emails with a couple of old contacts.
    • For a site2 giving details of the various tests, and other Hi-Q information, see Uncommonly Difficult IQ Tests (http://tthqi.free.fr/Uncommonly%20Difficult%20IQ%20Tests.php). The site doesn’t seem to have been updated since 2006.
    • See High-IQ Societies and their Tests (http://www.polymath-systems.com/intel/hiqsocs/hiqsocs1.html) for a site that gives the admission tests used for entry to ISPE and peer and “higher” societies (and which refers to the defunct site mentioned in the footnote above-mentioned).
  6. Between 1997 and 2001 I edited a newsletter (Commensal - Past Issues) in my capacity as secretary of the Philosophical Discussion Group of British Mensa.
  7. I also edited "ISPE, Todman (Theo) - Under the Sycamore Tree: Correspondence Folder for the UK Members and Associates of ISPE" for a year.
  8. My intention has been to participate in these societies just so far as doing so would support my other projects by way of stimulation and the opportunity for interaction. As such, most of the time recorded against this project could equally be recorded against others.

Summary of Progress during 17Q4 - 18Q3
  1. I have spent 7 hours YTD on this Project, or related work, where for "YTD" - Year to Date - I mean the (academic) year that commenced in October 2017). That's 54% of the planned effort. Overall, 0% of my Project effort YTD has been directed towards this project.
  2. YTD Activity3
    HiQ (Total Hours = 6.5)
    • 17Q3 Status Reports (1.75 hours)
    • 18Q2 Status Reports (0.5 hours)
    • Admin - HiQ Societies - ISPE - Contact Details (0.25 hours)
    • Admin - HiQ Societies - ISPE - Recent Emails (0.25 hours)
    • Admin - HiQ Societies - ISPE - Re-joining (0.25 hours)
    • Admin - HiQ Societies - ISPE - Test Queries (0.25 hours)
    • Admin - HiQ Societies - ISPE - TNS/ISPE Meet-up? (1 hour)
    • Discussion with Lise Lynge (1.25 hours)
    • Ning (1 hour)
      → See "Admin - HiQ Societies - ISPE"

  3. As can be seen from the list above, this project has been largely inactive over the last year. It will remain so for the foreseeable future. I did receive a communication from an ISPE member organising a meeting for London-based members of the 3-sigma societies (mostly ISPE and TNS4), but it clashed with a King’s reunion. But I may follow this up in due course.
  4. Progress (if any) in the last quarter can be obtained from the relevant section of my Summary Task List, and YTD in future “automatic” editions of this report.

Plans for the Near Future:
  • Because of the need to focus on higher-priority projects, it is not possible to schedule much time on this project.
  • Consequently, I’ve scheduled one hour a week, and don’t really expect to achieve that.
  • If I do find the time, I’ll be looking into:-
    1. ISPE
    2. Mensa
      • Nothing planned.




In-Page Footnotes

Footnote 1:
  • All that ought to have been required was that I pay my dues, but because of a mix-up I was asked to sit the latest version of their test, which I did.
  • I didn’t initially hear back – though I was re-instated OK. On chasing them up for the results I eventually got the response that “I’d passed with flying colours”, but no further details could be elicited.
  • My rationale for the enquiry was set out in an email: “On the test itself – it’s similar to, though not the same as – the first one I took, and leaves me feeling similarly uncomfortable. Theory is massively underdetermined by data, so – in a sense – “it depends what you want”. It’d be possible – no doubt – to think more and more deeply and come up with more and more Byzantine reasons for excluding particular items. But how would I know this is what is wanted? It wasn’t until I got the same percentile on the (much more satisfying but now sadly compromised) Mega Test that I trusted the ISPE test at all (actually, I was surprised that I didn’t do better on the Mega Test, and an inquest revealed I’d made at least 3 howlers that more care would have avoided).”
Footnote 2:
  • The reference given in previous reports is defunct.
  • I think this is the same basic site.
Footnote 3:
  • As this project is substantially inactive, I don’t update the text between quarters other than at the end of the academic year.
  • Hence, the YTD Activity is to make this task easier, and to give a clearer idea of what – if anything – has been going on in the interim.
Footnote 4:

Note last updated: 10/10/2018 16:43:41

Footnote 18: (Status: Summary - Actual versus Plan (2018 - December))

This page shows the following tables (which are unlikely to be of any interest to anyone other than myself):-

  1. Plan versus Actual Effort Summary - Split (Current Quarter & YTD)
  2. Plan versus Actual Effort Summary - Actual (Current Quarter & YTD)
  3. Plan Summary (Next Quarter & Full Year)
  4. Actual & Plan Summary (2007 - Current Year)

Plan versus Actual Effort Summary - Split (Current Quarter & YTD)


Summary figures against the QTD (October - December 2018) Plan, and for the YTD (2018/19) Academic Year, are as below. This table shows the actual %age split of work (YTD & QTD) as against the planned %age split of work. The second table below compares the amount of work done, as against plan:-

ProjectPlanned Weekly HoursPlanned QTD %ageQTD Actual %Planned YTD %ageYTD Actual %QTD Actual HoursYTD Actual Hours
Bridge243431313
Chess6111711176565
Consciousness12 2 22
HiQ12 2 22
Languages2414144
Mathematics1212144
Music8151915197272
Religion123231010
Thesis2037363736139139
Website12221922197171
Total54100100100100382382
Comparisons62 days62 days81% 81%473473


All figures above are rounded to the nearest unit. The bottom row in the above table is non-standard. The first two columns show the number of days in the current reporting Quarter and YTD, and the last two columns show the hours planned (according to the latest quarterly plan) for the current reporting Quarter and pro-rata YTD. The middle non-empty columns show %age actual vs plan (actuals taken from the Total row) for the Quarter and YTD. In principle this allows monitoring of total effort vs plan, as well as the distribution of effort across projects.


Plan versus Actual Effort Summary - Effort (Current Quarter & YTD)


Summary figures against the QTD (October - December 2018) Plan, and for the YTD (2018/19) Academic Year, are as below. This table shows the actual percentage against plan:-

ProjectQTD Planned HoursYTD Planned HoursQTD Actual HoursYTD Actual HoursQTD Actual % v PlanYTD Actual % v Plan
Bridge181813137676
Chess53536565124124
Consciousness99222020
HiQ99221717
Languages1818442323
Mathematics99444040
Music70707272103103
Religion991010111111
Thesis1751751391397980
Website10510571716868
Total47347338238281%81%


All figures above are rounded to the nearest unit.


Plan Summary (Next Quarter & Full Year)


The plan for the distribution of effort, in hours / week, for the coming Quarter & Academic Year is as below. As the year goes by, estimates are replaced by actuals, and re-estimates are made. In the final quarter of the academic year (July - September) this table just shows the plan for the next academic year. In the light of the above "re-focusing" decisions, Secondary Projects have no time estimated for them:-

ProjectPlanned Hours / Week Next QtrPlanned %age Next QtrFull Year Planned %agePlanned Hours Next QtrFull Year Planned HoursFull Year Actual + Planned HoursComparison (%ages)
Bridge2442610410096
Chess6111177313325104
Consciousness12213524586
HiQ12213524586
Languages244261049187
Mathematics12213524790
Music81515103417419100
Religion122135253102
Thesis2037372571043100596
Website12222215462659194
Total541001006942816271997


All figures above are rounded to the nearest unit.


Actual & Plan Summary (2007 - 2019)


Below is a table showing the split amongst my various projects of time expended or planned over a 12-year period. :-

Project2007/08 (Actuals)2008/09 (Actuals)2009/10 (Actuals)2010/11 (Actuals)2011/12 (Actuals)2012/13 (Actuals)2013/14 (Actuals)2014/15 (Actuals)2015/16 (Actuals)2016/17 (Actuals)2017/18 (Actuals)2018/19 (Actual + Plan)Total%age
Bridge776632757796106293494138066287061100797027.84
Chess 291614661149611593255331.86
Consciousness 4176301521916144217453521.23
HiQ   171481115645990.35
Languages234331232268952564292912469114565.09
Mathematics2328845518628418472840.99
Music63132144618323716817927841914044.9
Religion91198412849203305248116108601485327919.75
Thesis60845334947718040273589656182811421005763626.67
Website671981812043486514949471117664643591610521.32
Total18622042225027181928239425422507257426752420271928630100

Note last updated: 01/12/2018 13:39:22

Footnote 23: (Status: Summary Task List (YTD: 18Q4 - 18Q4))

This is a list of the tasks performed on my various projects since the beginning of the 2018-19 academic year. It is automatically generated from my time-recording system, so is fairly crude. See also the Quarterly Report. This Annual Report is mostly for use for the "inactive" projects for which commented Quarterly Status reports are not produced. Projects are in priority sequence, broken down by sub-project where appropriate. If the project name has a superscript, clicking on the name will take you to the last published report for this project. To jump to the Project task-lists, click on the links in the list below:-

  1. Thesis (For the latest Status Dashboard, Click Here)
  2. Thesis Background
  3. Thesis (Aeon)
  4. Religion
  5. Religion Background
  6. Website
  7. Website Others
  8. Music
  9. Chess
  10. Consciousness
  11. Languages
  12. Mathematics
  13. HiQ
  14. Bridge
Links to the latest time-analyses are given first.
  1. Total Time outstanding this period = 2342 hours
  2. Click Here for Actual Detail Summary (2007 - 2018) by Sub-Project
  3. Click Here for (by Project)
    • Summary of Effort YTD & QTD
    • Time Analysis (YTD by Study-location)
  4. Click Here for (by Project)
    • Plan versus Actual Effort Summary - Split (Previous Quarter & YTD)
    • Plan versus Actual Effort Summary - Actual (Previous Quarter & YTD)
    • Plan Summary (Next Quarter & Full Year)
    • Actual & Plan Summary (2007 - 2018)
Project 1: Thesis (Total Hours = 122.25)
  1. Thesis - Reading / Writing (Total Hours = 109.25)
  2. Thesis - Discussions
  3. Thesis - Lectures
  4. Thesis - Research Repositioning
  5. Thesis - Seminars (Total Hours = 2.5)
  6. Thesis - Seminars (Writing)

Project 2: Thesis Background (Total Hours = 16)
  1. Thesis Background - Reading / Writing (Total Hours = 9.5)
  2. Thesis Background - Status (Total Hours = 6.5)

Project 3: Thesis (Aeon)
Project 4: Religion
Project 5: Religion Background (Total Hours = 9.5)
  1. Religion Background - Reading / Writing
  2. Religion Background - Admin
  3. Religion Background - Discussions (Total Hours = 5.5)
    • Interaction - Discussions at King's (0.5 hours)
    • "Interaction - Discussions with Pete" (2.25 hours)
    • Interaction - Discussions with Willie (1 hour)
    • Interaction - Discussions with Willie, Mike, Sylvia, Pete, Caro, … (1.75 hours)

Project 6: Website (Total Hours = 67)
  1. Website - Development (Total Hours = 50.5)
    • Create Timeline software: Add photos of Tom & Coxes Farm (10.5 hours)
    • Investigate +CSpider_Copy: Full_Link_Up_Levels_GenC+. (2 hours)
    • Website - Generator - Add timestamps to MsgBox completion messages (0.25 hours)
    • Website - Generator - Add totals to Maintenance Dashboard (3.25 hours)
    • Website - Generator - Development Log - Bug Fixes (0.5 hours)
    • Website - Generator - Fixes re Broken Links revealed by Spider (15.5 hours)
    • Website - Generator - Investigating pgn4web Chess-game viewer (1.5 hours)
    • Website - Generator - Links from Blog in Level 1 or 2 Printed Notes 512 and 981 failing (1 hour)
    • Website - Generator - Links occasionally missing from Summary Task Lists (1.75 hours)
    • Website - Generator - Maintain consolidated Development Log (0.5 hours)
    • Website - Generator - Priority Task List Report (1 hour)
    • Website - Generator - Various fixes re Supervisions Notes Directory errors (4.75 hours)
    • Website - Generator - Web Spider - Check out & correct missing links (2 hours)
    • Website - Generator - Web Spider - Delete Raw_Links associated with Pruned Files (0.75 hours)
    • Website - Generator - WebRefs - Added Display text to WebRefs for Links to Stanford, Wikipedia & Aeon (5.25 hours)
      → See "Software Development - Website - Development" (50.5 hours)
  2. Website - Education (Total Hours = 1.75)
  3. Website - Infrastructure (Total Hours = 3.75)
    • iCloud for Windows Installation (0.75 hours)
    • Julie's Laptop Support - Including Windows 10 Bugs & Upgrades (0.25 hours)
    • Microsoft Windows 10 / MS Office - Releases, Bugs & Periodic Re-boots (1.25 hours)
    • PC Backups / OneDrive (1.5 hours)
      → See "Software Development - Website - Development" (3.75 hours)
  4. Website - Maintenance (Total Hours = 11)
    • 18Q3 Status Reports (1 hour)
      → See "Admin - Website - Admin & Maintenance" (1 hour)
    • Renew Kaspersky License (0.25 hours)
    • Website - Correct WHOIS Data for theotodman.com Domain Name (0.75 hours)
    • Website - Generator - General: Tidy up Site - delete un-updated pages (1 hour)
    • Website - Generator - WebRefs - Manual URL Checks (0.5 hours)
    • Website - Periodic Full Regeneration (5.75 hours)
    • Website - Run Web Spider (1 hour)
    • Website - ZoomSearch database refresh (0.75 hours)
      → See "Software Development - Website - Development" (10 hours)

Project 7: Website Others (Total Hours = 4.25)
  1. Website Others - Enigma Ensemble (Total Hours = 1.25)
    • Added 'EE' shortcut icon (used Link (https://logomakr.com/)) (1 hour)
    • Enigma Ensemble Website - Creation, Admin & Maintenance (0.25 hours)
      → See "Admin - Music - Administration" (1.25 hours)
  2. Website Others - Sophie Botros (Total Hours = 3)

Project 8: Music (Total Hours = 72.25)
  1. Music - Administration (Total Hours = 7.5)
  2. Music - Oboe (Total Hours = 62)
  3. Music - Piano
  4. Music - Theory (Total Hours = 2.5)

Project 9: Chess (Total Hours = 65.25)
  1. Chess - Reading / Writing (Total Hours = 2.75)
  2. Chess - Admin (Total Hours = 19.5)
    • "Chess" Chess Clock: Fixed rocker mechanism (0.25 hours)
    • 18Q3 Status Reports (2.75 hours)
    • Billericay Chess Club: Communications, Admin, etc. (14.5 hours)
    • Chess - Discussions with Chris (0.25 hours)
    • DGT XL Chess Clock: Reading User Manual (0.75 hours)
    • PQ99075 Chess Clock: Reading User Manual (0.25 hours)
    • Purchase chess set for home matches (0.75 hours)
      → See "Chess - Chess - Admin" (19.5 hours)
  3. Chess - Play (Total Hours = 17.75)
    • Chess - Billericay Chess Club - Club Championship (9 hours)
    • Chess - Billericay Chess Club - Club Nights (2.75 hours)
    • Chess - Billericay Chess Club - NECL Match (3 hours)
    • Chess - Billericay Chess Club - Southend League Match (3 hours)
      → See "Chess - Chess - Playing" (17.75 hours)
  4. Chess - Study (Total Hours = 15.5)
  5. Chess - Training (Total Hours = 9.75)
    • Chess - Training - Mephisto Monte Carlo (1 hour)
    • Chess - Training - Mephisto Monte Carlo - Review Games (0.25 hours)
    • Chess - Training - Review Club games (8.5 hours)
      → See "Chess - Chess - Training" (9.75 hours)

Project 10: Consciousness (Total Hours = 1.75)
Project 11: Languages (Total Hours = 4)
  1. Languages - Admin
  2. Languages - Thai

Project 12: Mathematics (Total Hours = 3.5)
  1. Mathematics - Reading / Writing (Total Hours = 2.75)
  2. Mathematics - Admin

Project 13: HiQ (Total Hours = 1.5)
  • 18Q3 Status Reports (1.25 hours)
  • Admin - HiQ Societies - ISPE - Membership Dues (0.25 hours)
    → See "Admin - HiQ Societies - ISPE" (1.5 hours)

Project 14: Bridge (Total Hours = 13.25)
  1. Bridge - Reading / Writing
  2. Bridge - Admin (Total Hours = 4)
    • 18Q3 Status Reports (1 hour)
    • Bridge - Emails to David (0.5 hours)
    • Bridge - Socialising with Tony (2.5 hours)
      → See "Admin - Bridge - Admin" (4 hours)
  3. Bridge - Play
  4. Bridge - Study (Total Hours = 3.5)
    • Bridge - Session Reviews (David Tennet) (0.75 hours)
    • Bridge - Systems Review (Strong Diamond) (2.75 hours)
      → See "Admin - Bridge - Study" (3.5 hours)

Note last updated: 01/12/2018 13:32:10

Footnote 26: (Thesis - Outline)

The Thesis seems to fall naturally into three sections (other than the Introduction and Conclusion); namely, Chapters 2-5 (setting up the problem), chapters 6-9 (Olson and Baker’s views contrasted); and Chapters 10-11 (testing the preferred solution). Consequently, I anticipate my Thesis having the following chapters:-

  1. Chapter 01: Introduction
  2. Chapter 02: What are We?
  3. Chapter 03: What is a Person?
  4. Chapter 04: Basic Metaphysical Issues
  5. Chapter 05: Persistence and Time
  6. Chapter 06: Animalism and Arguments for It
  7. Chapter 07: The Constitution View and Arguments for It
  8. Chapter 08: Arguments against Animalism
  9. Chapter 09: Arguments against the Constitution View
  10. Chapter 10: Thought Experiments
  11. Chapter 11: Resurrection
  12. Chapter 12: Conclusion
I’ve started a Note listing “parked” future reading.

For convenience, brief abstracts (as currently intended) of the above chapters are given below. I have included hyperlinks in the above list to my initial thoughts on these topics (and to reading lists and plans for further research) by way of further clarification. I’ve also included links from the “Thought Experiment” abstract below, for the same reason. The reading lists are rather full, and I’ll need to whittle them down to those I actually intend to read (and, better, address).

Chapter abstracts
  1. Introduction: Something like this document, but in narrative form, maybe including a brief historical general survey of Personal Identity.
  2. What are We? : The topic “personal identity” has historically presupposed that we are (in the sense of “identical to”, or “most fundamentally”) persons, whereas I (along with other animalists) claim that we are identical to human animals. “We” requires explanation. This chapter will sort out the topic of discussion for the Thesis as a whole.
  3. What is a Person?: This Chapter will canvass the various views and consider how important issues in this area are to my main concern of our identity.
  4. Basic Metaphysical Issues: Substances and sortals are central to the persistence of anything, and in particular to my claim that persons are phase sortals of human animals (the substances). I need to address the concept of a SOUL as souls are the major counter-claim to the persisting entity being an animal; or at least popularly so. The question of Natural Kinds arises in considering whether PERSON is a natural kind concept.
  5. Persistence and Time: A number of thought experiments that feature in the following chapter seem to fail if perdurantism is true (because the reduplication objections fail). Depending on whether any of these are critical to my arguments, I may need to consider the impact of perdurantism. But this complex area may be a step too far within a fairly limited word-count. I’m also unsure whether it should feature before or after the account of Thought Experiments.
  6. Animalism and Arguments for it: This Chapter describes what Animalism is, with an excursus on animals and organisms and their persistence. It puts forward the arguments in favour of animalism, those against being reserved for a later Chapter. It focuses on the account of Eric Olson, the primary contemporary exponent of Animalism.
  7. The Constitution View and Arguments for it: This Chapter gives an account of Lynne Rudder Baker’s thesis that human persons are not identical to human animals, but are – temporarily at least – constituted by them.
  8. Arguments against Animalism: A discussion of the arguments against animalism, as given by those of anti-animalist persuasion and defended by the principal animalists (with a focus on Olson), with a critique.
  9. Arguments against the Constitution View: A discussion of the arguments against the Constitution View, focusing on the principal animalists, with a critique. In particular, I intend to critique Olson’s “thinking animal” argument against the Constitution View (though I think this argument is unnecessary for Olson to establish the case for Animalism).
  10. Thought Experiments: Any account of personal identity needs to give an account of what is going on in the various thought experiments that have been thought relevant to the topic. It’s also the area that’s most fun. Indeed, I think that the entire Thesis will be an exercise in inference to the best explanation. It needs to account for our intuitions (if there is a universal response) or explain them away as confused. I will firstly briefly consider the propriety of using thought experiments in this domain of enquiry, and then consider the usual suspects, such as:
    • Fission, fusion and replication in general
    • Commissurotomy
    • Multiple Personality Disorder
    • Brain-state Transfer
    • Brain Transplants
    • Teletransportation
    • Siliconisation
    • Etc?
  11. Resurrection: If mind-body substance dualism is false, and we are identical to human animals, then the only possibility for post-mortem existence is some form of bodily resurrection. Since the body is destroyed at death, it would seem that any resurrected individual could only be a copy of the original. It might think of itself as the resurrected pre-mortem individual, but it would be wrong. Consideration of arguments by Peter Van Inwagen in this respect. This chapter is likely to be controversial, so needs to be very carefully argued, and factually correct concerning what is actually believed by intellectually Christians and Muslims (unlike what seems to be the case with most swipes against religion). Maybe I should also cover reincarnation.
  12. Conclusion: Brief summary of the above;
    • We are human animals,
    • Human persons fall under phase sortals of the concept HUMAN ANIMAL,
    • The person is inseparable from the animal,
    • The animal is utterly destroyed at death,
    • Substance dualism is false, and
    • Consequently (given the sort of thing we are) resurrection or any other post-mortem survival is impossible for us.

Note last updated: 24/04/2018 00:12:58

Footnote 27: (Thesis - Chapter 02 (What are We?))

Abstract

  1. The topic “personal identity” has historically presupposed that we are (in the sense of “identical to”, or “most fundamentally”) persons, whereas I (along with other animalists) claim that we are identical to human animals.
  2. “We” requires explanation. This chapter attempts to sort out the topic of discussion for the Thesis as a whole.
  3. I need to address the concept of a SOUL as souls are the major counter-claim to the persisting entity being an animal; or at least popularly so. The same goes for SELVES, and also for HUMAN BEINGS, insofar as these are supposed to be distinct from HUMAN ANIMALs.
  4. I also need to have some discussion of what is meant by the various other possibilities of what we are, but leave explications of PERSONs, BODIES and ANIMALs / ORGANISMs until later Chapters.
  5. I’m not quite sure where the possibility that we are BRAINs ought to go, but for the time being it’s here; and this leads on to the possibility (tacitly assumed in some TEs) that we might be individual CEREBRA.


Research Methodology
  • Follow this Link for a generic statement of how I intend to pursue each Chapter.
  • The method is broken down into 12, possibly iterative, stages.
  • Follow this Link for my progress dashboard on these tasks.
  • Progress on this Chapter is unusual in that it was the sample Chapter on which I was working with my Supervisor when registered for the PhD at Birkbeck.


Chapter Introduction
  1. This Chapter has the title “What Are We?”. The “We” is of some significance, as we will see in the course of this Thesis when we consider the social and reciprocal aspects of what it is to be a person. Nonetheless, should we not start with the singular, maybe even solipsist, question “What Am I?”, and expand out from there into the collective question? How we phrase our initial question has an impact on the course of our investigations, and may reflect our deepest presuppositions. The first-person question adopts the Cartesian stance of looking from the inside out, whereas the third-person question considers “us” collectively. The first-person question may presuppose that the answer to the question is that I am primarily a psychological being, whereas the third-person question may assume or expect the answer that I am fundamentally physical.
  2. Some of the potential answers to the question will be the same whether we phrase the question in the singular or the plural.
  3. Taking it in the plural for now, we need to distinguish, as candidates for what we might be on the physical side, (prefixing “human-” passim):-
    • Animals,
    • Organisms,
    • Bodies,
    • Beings, and
    • Brains.
  4. On the psychological side, I might be a self or, more popularly, a person. I might even be a non-essentially-embodied entity like a soul.
  5. I will consider all these options in due course; with the exception of a detailed discussion of the concept PERSON (which is reserved for the next Chapter), I will do so later in this chapter.
  6. Olson7 also considers whether we might be Humean bundles of mental states and events, and even the nihilist view that we don’t exist at all. I’m not sure I’ll have space for these, but need to remain aware of the possibilities and motivations for these positions.
  7. However, for the moment I want to consider some themes connecting the possible answers to our question. Firstly, does there have to be a single answer? I know that I, and presume that my readers also, fall happily under the concepts HUMAN ANIMAL, HUMAN ORGANISM and HUMAN BEING. I at least have a human body and a human brain, though I would initially feel reluctant to say that I am one of either of these things. I would certainly claim to be a SELF, and also a PERSON, as no doubt would my reader. So, cannot all these answers be correct?
  8. This raises the question of what I mean by saying what I am (or we are) something. In saying that I am any of these things, what sort of relation is the “am”? Am I using am in the sense of an identity relation, a constitution relation, ascribing a predicate, or have some other sense in mind?
  9. There are two kinds of questions I want to ask. Firstly, what sort of being am I identical to? Secondly, what sort of properties do I have; both metaphysically essential properties (those without which I would cease to exist), and those I merely consider essential (that is, “very important”, though I would continue to exist without them)?
  10. Any “is” that does duty for the identity relation inherits the formal properties of an equivalence relation; in particular, it is a transitive relation. Additionally, the “two” identical entities either side of the copula must satisfy Leibniz’s law; “they” share (at a time) all their properties; actual and modal, intrinsic and relational. So, if I am identical to a human animal, and also identical to a human person, then that human animal must be identical to that human person. This would mean that these “two” entities are really one. They co-exist at all times in all possible worlds where either of “them” exists, and share all their properties and relations, at any time and world. Everything that happens to “one” at a world and time happens to the “other” at those coordinates. This places strong logical constraints on how much cake I can have and eat. I may want to say that I am identical both to a human animal, and to a human person, yet claim that a human person has certain mental properties essentially, but deny that a human animal does. However, I am then claiming what is logically impossible, at least for the classical logic of identity that denies that such notions as relative identity are coherent. As we will see, this point is essential to the animalist case that we are not identical to human persons (given the claim that we are identical to human animals).
  11. My thesis addresses the topic of personal identity, but we might claim that what we’re really interested in is in our identity. Not that we have doubts as individuals as to which particular individual we are (as though I, as Bill Clinton, don’t know whether I am Bill Clinton or George W. Bush), but what sort of individual we are, together with worries about our persistence (how long we are going to last, and in what form). Historically, it has been a standard presupposition that what we are most fundamentally is persons, or at least that’s all we care about. So, concern about our identity has been elided with concern for personal identity, almost as though we thought that the two questions are the same. Animalists argue that the two questions are indeed different, but for convenience, and the historical continuity of the general topic under discussion, still say they are talking about personal identity.


Main Text
  1. To be supplied.


Links to Books / Papers to be Addressed9
  1. For this Chapter I have already worked on the various papers or book chapters under supervisory control. Where this is the case, for ease of reference, the analytical Note for each reference is hyperlinked directly.
  2. Additionally, I may need to consider other papers or book chapters in the following lists (together with some others referenced by these). There are doubtless many more that are relevant and which will be addressed in the course of the thesis, but these are probably sufficient to get us going. Some that I have considered have been culled or reserved for later.
  3. The General Question:-
  4. Brains / Cerebra
  5. Neurological Background
  6. Human Beings
  7. Selves36
  8. Souls38
  9. Nihilism
  10. Many aspects of these papers will need to be left for later chapters.


The Cut
  1. There had already been a lot of cutting in the various selections of the original reading list – the reading lists attached to the Notes run on and on – and these items just represent the works in my possession (though I have sought out all that I’ve heard of that look relevant).
  2. However, the items in the lists following were given some attention, and have been culled – at least temporarily – from the lists above, where they originally appeared. I’ve not always given a reason as I’ve not studied them sufficiently closely. But, you have to draw a line somewhere.
  3. The General Question
  4. Brains / Cerebra
  5. Human Beings
  6. Selves
  7. Souls


Links to Notes
  1. For an out-of-date skeleton giving a fuller reading list, follow this link.
  2. Candidates for what we are, considered in this Chapter:-
    • Human Beings,
    • Brains,
    • Cerebra,
    • Selves,
    • Souls,
    • Others to be Supplied?
  3. Candidates for what we are, considered in later Chapters:-
    • Animals,
    • Bodies,
    • Organisms,
    • Persons,
    • Nihilism.


Final Remarks
  1. This is work in progress.




In-Page Footnotes

Footnote 7: In "Olson (Eric) - What are We?"

Footnote 9:
  • See the section on Research Methodology for what is to be done with these.
  • The author’s surname is repeated in the text to make it easier for me to see what’s going on in the encoded text I work on.
Footnote 16: The excerpt from Brandom raises some questions about the community we call “we”.

Footnote 19: Baker often expresses indebtedness to Roderick Chisholm, who is reviewed on that account.

Footnote 21: An annoying book, but one I ought to study.

Footnote 25: The book. From my perspective, probably the most important source for this Chapter.

Footnote 26: See also the Chapters on Brains and Souls in the subsequent reading-lists.

Footnote 30: Useful historical background, maybe!

Footnote 32: Lockwood might deny that this is his view, but he seems committed to it, as far as I can see.

Footnote 33: This maybe ought to be categorised as an “anti-soul” view.

Footnote 34: Some of the papers by Puccetti will be reconsidered in (or maybe reserved for – a couple already have been) Chapter 10.

Footnote 36:
  • This list is rather long, and contains many whole books. I may have to cull several of these further down the line.
  • However, the Self is important, as it’s the root of Baker’s FPP, and the motivator for all psychological theories of PI, so understanding just what it is supposed to be is central to my concerns.
Footnote 37: Alexander thinks that we are Selves, and that Selves are tropes – abstract particulars – which by my lights is about as far from the truth as you can get, so I need to consider his arguments carefully.

Footnote 38:
  • The comment about the prolixity of the reading list applies even more to Souls than Selves, without the positive connection my primary thesis.
  • However, if we were to be souls, this would solve the resurrection problem; so I need to thoroughly understand the reasons why we might be – but most likely are not – souls.
Footnote 39: This looks interesting, but is somewhat off-topic for a priority reading-list.

Footnote 40: This is rather elementary, and ought to have been reviewed in Chapter 01.

Note last updated: 01/12/2018 16:20:38

Footnote 28: (Thesis - Chapter 04 (Basic Metaphysical Issues))

Abstract

  • I need to discuss the logic of identity, survival and persistence, and even whether identity matters in survival.
  • Substances and sortals are central to the persistence of anything, and in particular to my claim that persons are phase sortals of human animals (the substances).
  • The question of Natural Kinds arises in considering whether PERSON is a natural kind concept.
  • Certain four-dimensional approaches to persistence do away with the substance concept, but I discuss this issue in the next Chapter.


Research Methodology
  • Follow this Link for a generic statement of how I intend to pursue each Chapter.
  • The method is broken down into 12, possibly iterative, stages.
  • Follow this Link for my progress dashboard on these tasks.


Chapter Introduction
  1. The purpose of this chapter is to clarify my views on a number of logical and metaphysical issues that are central to the core of this Thesis.
  2. I will also consider Derek Parfit’s claim that “Identity is not what matters in survival” in this Chapter.
  3. The coverage in the Chapter itself will have to be very brief lest it consume the word-count for the entire thesis. Most information – and in particular the bulk of the justification for my views – will remain in the Notes.
  4. Three background issues, namely my views on:-
    • Persistence and Time,
    • Thought Experiments, and
    • Constitution
    are covered elsewhere (follow the links above).
  5. Other topics may be added as they arise.


Main Text
  1. To be supplied.


Links to Books / Papers to be Addressed6
  1. In this Chapter I will consider the following papers or book chapters (together with some others referenced by these). There are doubtless many more that are relevant and which will be addressed in the course of the thesis, but these are probably sufficient to get us going:-
  2. Basic Metaphysics7
  3. Logic of Identity (General)
  4. Relative Identity
  5. Vague Identity
  6. Indeterminate Identity
  7. Contingent Identity
  8. Occasional Identity
  9. Criteria of Identity
  10. Substances
  11. Sortals & Phase Sortals
  12. Kinds and Natural Kinds
  13. Metamorphosis
  14. Does Identity Matter?
  15. Many aspects of these papers will need to be either ignored or reserved for other chapters.
  16. The motivation for these works is as follows:-
    • To be supplied.


The Cut
  1. There had already been a lot of cutting in the various selections of the original reading list – the reading lists attached to the Notes run on and on – and these items just represent the works in my possession (though I have sought out all that I’ve heard of that look relevant).
  2. However, the items in the lists following were given some attention, and have been culled – at least temporarily – from the lists above, where they originally appeared. I’ve not always given a reason as I’ve not studied them sufficiently closely. But, you have to draw a line somewhere.
  3. I’m well aware that the cut has not been sufficiently rigorous. Further items beyond the items below are likely to be culled when I come to process them.
    • To be Supplied.


Links to Notes
  1. Logic of Identity, including:-
    • Relative Identity,
    • Vague Identity.
    • Indeterminate Identity,
    • Contingent Identity, and
    • Occasional Identity.
  2. Criteria of Identity,
  3. Substance,
  4. Sortals,
  5. Metamorphosis,
  6. Phase Sortals,
  7. Kinds,
  8. Natural Kinds,
  9. Does Identity Matter,
  10. Others to be supplied as they come up.


Final Remarks
  1. This is work in progress.




In-Page Footnotes

Footnote 6:
  • See the section on Research Methodology for what is to be done with these.
  • The author’s surname is repeated in the text to make it easier for me to see what’s going on in the encoded text I work on.
Footnote 7: There’s an endless amount of stuff in this area, so I’ve (for now) chosen a couple of contrasting approaches.

Footnote 8: Footnote 9:
  • Modality is important in my thesis, because modal questions come into persistence criteria.
  • That said, the last two essays in the book – by Hossack and Olson – are the most important, though of these two only that by Hossack really belongs to this Chapter.
Footnote 10: I’m not sure where this book should be parked, and not all of it is relevant.

Footnote 11: I doubt this paper is really about Relative Identity, but more about Brain Transplants).

Footnote 12: Read the Synopsis below first.

Note last updated: 03/11/2018 18:01:26

Footnote 29: (Thesis - Chapter 06 (Animalism and Arguments for It))

Abstract

    This Chapter describes what Animalism is, with an excursus on animals and organisms and their persistence.
  • It puts forward the arguments in favour of animalism, those against being reserved for a later Chapter.
  • It focuses on the account of Eric Olson, the primary contemporary exponent of Animalism.


Research Methodology
  • Follow this Link for a generic statement of how I intend to pursue each Chapter.
  • The method is broken down into 12, possibly iterative, stages.
  • Follow this Link for my progress dashboard on these tasks.


Chapter Introduction
  1. As we saw in Chapter 02, nothing is more obvious than that we are human animals.
  2. The disadvantages of whole-hearted acceptance of this seemingly obvious fact are firstly that it seems to demote human beings from their status of being made in the image of the God most people no longer believe in. There are two responses to this; either to deny that it does, or to accept that the differences between human beings and other animals are those of degree rather than kind.
  3. A second disadvantage is that accepting that we are human animals makes the prospects for post-mortem survival look bleak. This is addressed in Chapter 11.
  4. So, while saying that we are human animals might seem to be the default position – and so the burden is on others to demonstrate that we are not – the historical situation places a burden on the animalist to present the case for animalism with as much rigour as possible.
  5. Further text to be supplied.


Main Text
  1. To be supplied.


Links to Books / Papers to be Addressed5
  1. In this Chapter I will consider the following papers or book chapters (together with some others referenced by these). There are doubtless many more that are relevant and which will be addressed in the course of the thesis, but these are probably sufficient to get us going.
  2. As this is a “core” chapter, the coverage of the literature will be very complete, if not exhaustive, when it comes to Animalism itself.
  3. For background topics, it will be more selective6. Hence, I have divided the reading list into two.
  4. I’ve not been overly careful to segregate the reading-list of this Chapter from that of Chapter 8. I will address the segregation in due course. There will, in any case, be some overlap.
  5. Core Topics
  6. Background Material
  7. Many aspects of these papers will need to be either ignored or reserved for other chapters.
  8. The motivation for these works is as follows:-
    • To be supplied.


The Cut
  1. There had already been a lot of cutting in the various selections of the original reading list – the reading lists attached to the Notes run on and on – and these items just represent the works in my possession (though I have sought out all that I’ve heard of that look relevant).
  2. However, the items in the lists following were given some attention, and have been culled – at least temporarily – from the lists above, where they originally appeared. I’ve not always given a reason as I’ve not studied them sufficiently closely. But, you have to draw a line somewhere.
  3. I’m well aware that the cut has not been sufficiently rigorous. Further items beyond the items below are likely to be culled when I come to process them.
    • To be supplied.


Links to Notes
  1. Animalism,
  2. Animalists,
  3. Bodies,
  4. Olson,
  5. Animals,
  6. Organisms,
  7. Life,
  8. Thinking Animal Argument,
  9. Other Arguments for Animalism18,
  10. Others to be supplied?


Final Remarks
  1. This is work in progress.




In-Page Footnotes

Footnote 5:
  • See the section on Research Methodology for what is to be done with these.
  • The author’s surname is repeated in the text to make it easier for me to see what’s going on in the encoded text I work on.
Footnote 6:
  • There are a few papers listed on the cognitive capacities of animals.
  • I got bored with listing these, so the sample may not be representative.
  • These are, in any case, probably more relevant to Chapter 9 – as an antidote to Baker’s attempted ontological separation of human persons from human animals – so I will move them there – and expand the list if necessary – in due course.
Footnote 8: A knowledge of genetics is important in arguments about the comings into being and identities of animals.

Footnote 9: What is this important book doing here?

Footnote 18: This needs a Note!

Note last updated: 02/11/2018 10:45:07

Footnote 30: (Thesis - Chapter 07 (The Constitution View and Arguments for It))

Abstract

  • This Chapter gives an account of Lynne Rudder Baker’s thesis that human persons are not identical to human animals, but are – temporarily at least – constituted by them.


Research Methodology
  • Follow this Link for a generic statement of how I intend to pursue each Chapter.
  • The method is broken down into 12, possibly iterative, stages.
  • Follow this Link for my progress dashboard on these tasks.


Chapter Introduction
  1. Baker’s account of constitution is not the standard mereological account, of some larger body being constituted by its parts, but is her own idea that requires explication.
  2. Baker also has a commitment to PERSONs being substances in their own right, rather than being an honorific title applied to substances that at other times might not deserve the honorific.
  3. She also reifies a useful idea – that of a First-person Perspective. It is the FPP that individuates persons, according to Baker, so the FPP requires explanation as well.
  4. Further detail to be supplied.


Main Text
  1. To be supplied.


Links to Books / Papers to be Addressed4
  1. In this Chapter I will consider the following papers or book chapters (together with some others referenced by these). There are doubtless many more that are relevant and which will be addressed in the course of the thesis, but these are probably sufficient to get us going.
  2. I’ve not been overly careful to segregate the reading-list of this Chapter from that of Chapter 9. I will address the segregation in due course. There will, in any case, be some overlap.
  3. Baker
  4. Constitution
  5. Mereology6
  6. Co-Location7
  7. First-Person Perspectives
  8. Constitution View
  9. Many aspects of these papers will need to be either ignored or reserved for other chapters.
  10. The motivation for these works is as follows:-
    • To be supplied.


The Cut
  1. There had already been a lot of cutting in the various selections of the original reading list – the reading lists attached to the Notes run on and on – and these items just represent the works in my possession (though I have sought out all that I’ve heard of that look relevant).
  2. However, the items in the lists following were given some attention, and have been culled – at least temporarily – from the lists above, where they originally appeared. I’ve not always given a reason as I’ve not studied them sufficiently closely. But, you have to draw a line somewhere.
  3. I’m well aware that the cut has not been sufficiently rigorous. Further items beyond the items below are likely to be culled when I come to process them.


Links to Notes
  1. Baker,
  2. Constitution,
  3. Constitution View,
  4. First-Person Perspective,
  5. Mereology,
  6. Dion and Theon,
  7. Others to be supplied?


Final Remarks
  1. This is work in progress.




In-Page Footnotes

Footnote 4:
  • See the section on Research Methodology for what is to be done with these.
  • The author’s surname is repeated in the text to make it easier for me to see what’s going on in the encoded text I work on.
Footnote 6: While Baker’s understanding of constitution is distinct from a mereological one, it is necessary to understand mereology.

Footnote 7: I’m not sure whether this section belongs here, but it must go somewhere!

Footnote 8: This may properly belong to one of the Chapters on Animalism.

Footnote 9: This Chapter has rather more to do with distributive ethics than personal identity or the FPP.

Note last updated: 02/11/2018 10:45:07

Footnote 31: (Thesis - Chapter 10 (Thought Experiments))

Abstract

  • Any account of personal identity needs to give an account of what is going on in the various thought experiments that have been thought relevant to the topic. It’s also the area that’s most fun. Indeed, I think that the entire Thesis will be an exercise in inference to the best explanation. It needs to account for our intuitions (if there is a universal response) or explain them away as confused. I will firstly briefly consider the propriety of using thought experiments in this domain of enquiry, and then consider the usual suspects, including the following:-
    1. Fission
    2. Fusion
    3. Replication
    4. Commissurotomy1
    5. Multiple Personality Disorder2
    6. Brain-state Transfer
    7. Brain Transplants3
    8. Teletransportation
    9. Siliconisation
    10. Transhumanism


Research Methodology
  • Follow this Link for a generic statement of how I intend to pursue each Chapter.
  • The method is broken down into 12, possibly iterative, stages.
  • Follow this Link for my progress dashboard on these tasks.


Chapter Introduction
  1. To be supplied.


Main Text
  1. To be supplied.


Links to Books / Papers to be Addressed6
  1. In this Chapter I will consider the following papers or book chapters (together with some others referenced by these). There are doubtless many more that are relevant and which will be addressed in the course of the thesis, but these are probably sufficient to get us going.
  2. I have segregated the papers by sub-topic, but some would fit into more than one category.
  3. Theory
  4. Brain State Transfers7
  5. Brain Transplants
  6. Commissurotomy
  7. Fission
  8. Fusion
  9. Multiple Personality Disorder
  10. Replication
  11. Siliconisation8
  12. Teletransportation
  13. Transhumanism10
  14. Many aspects of these papers will need to be either ignored or reserved for other chapters.
  15. The motivation for these works is as follows:-
    • To be supplied.


The Cut
  1. There had already been a lot of cutting in the various selections of the original reading list – the reading lists attached to the Notes run on and on – and these items just represent the works in my possession (though I have sought out all that I’ve heard of that look relevant).
  2. However, the items in the lists following were given some attention, and have been culled – at least temporarily – from the lists above, where they originally appeared. I’ve not always given a reason as I’ve not studied them sufficiently closely. But, you have to draw a line somewhere.
  3. I’m well aware that the cut has not been sufficiently rigorous. Further items beyond the items below are likely to be culled when I come to process them.


Links to Notes
  1. Propriety of Thought Experiments
  2. Principal Examples:-
    • Fission
    • Fusion
    • Replication
    • Commissurotomy
    • Multiple Personality Disorder
    • Brain-state Transfers
    • Brain Transplants
    • Teletransportation
    • Siliconisation
    • Transhumanism.


Final Remarks
  1. This is work in progress.




In-Page Footnotes

Footnote 1: This is more an experiment than a thought-experiment, as commissurotomies are actual.

Footnote 2:
  • Again, this is – allegedly – an existent pathology rather than a TE.
  • Moreover, it might be better situated in Chapter 9 (Click here for Note) as a critique of the idea of an individuating FPP.
Footnote 3: We need to distinguish Whole-Brain Transplants (WBTs) from single or double Cerebrum transplants, and these from brain-tissue transplants, which shade off into Brain State Transfers.

Footnote 6:
  • See the section on Research Methodology for what is to be done with these.
  • The author’s surname is repeated in the text to make it easier for me to see what’s going on in the encoded text I work on.
Footnote 7:
  • There must be many more papers than the classic one by Williams (and commentaries thereon) – I just haven’t got them correctly categorised.
  • Under this head should be included references to “Brain Zaps” and the like.
Footnote 8: Footnote 9:
  • Tye seems to be discussing brain-partition, with silicon transceivers. But he uses Unger’s term “zippering”.
  • He is indebted to Arnold Zuboff, who may be worth following up.
Footnote 10: Footnote 11: I’ve read this book, but it’s insufficiently philosophical for its arguments – such as they are – to be worth considering as a priority.

Footnote 12: Cover in the next Chapter.

Note last updated: 03/11/2018 18:01:26

Footnote 32: (Transhumanism)

Plug Note1





In-Page Footnotes

Footnote 1:
  • A number of my philosophical Notes are “promissory notes” currently only listing the books and papers (if any) I possess on the topic concerned.
  • I’ve decided to add some text – whether by way of motivation, or something more substantive – for all these identified topics related to my Thesis.
  • As I want to do this fairly quickly, the text may be confused or show surprising ignorance.
  • The reader (if such exists) will have to bear with me, and display the principle of charity while this footnote exists.
Footnote 10:
  • If only a “non-updating” run has been made, the links are only one-way – ie. from the page of links to the objects that reference this Note by mentioning the appropriate key-word(s). The links are also only indicative, as they haven’t yet been confirmed as relevant.
  • Once an updating run has been made, links are both ways, and links from this Notes page (from the “Authors, Books & Papers Citing this Note” and “Summary of Note Links to this Page” sections) are to the “point of link” within the page rather than to the page generically. Links from the “links page” remain generic.
  • There are two sorts of updating runs – for Notes and other Objects. The reason for this is that Notes are archived, and too many archived versions would be created if this process were repeatedly run.
Footnote 11:
  • Frequently I’ll have made copious marginal annotations, and sometimes have written up a review-note.
  • In the former case, I intend to transfer the annotations into electronic form as soon as I can find the time.
  • In the latter case, I will have remarked on the fact against the citation, and will integrate the comments into this Note in due course.
  • My intention is to incorporate into these Notes comments on material I’ve already read rather than engage with unread material at this stage.
Footnote 12:
  • I may have read others in between updates of this Note – in which case they will be marked as such in the “References and Reading List” below.
  • Papers or Books partially read have a rough %age based on the time spent versus the time expected.

Note last updated: 18/08/2018 20:55:41

Footnote 33: (Thesis - Chapter 11 (Resurrection))

Abstract

  • If mind-body substance dualism is false, and we are identical to human animals, then the only possibility for post-mortem existence is some form of bodily resurrection.
  • Since the body is destroyed at death, it would seem that any resurrected individual could only be a copy of the original. It might think of itself as the resurrected pre-mortem individual, but it would be wrong.
  • Consideration of arguments by Peter Van Inwagen in this respect.
  • This chapter is likely to be controversial, so needs to be very carefully argued, and factually correct concerning what is actually believed by intellectually-aware Christians and Muslims (unlike what seems to be the case with most swipes against religion).
  • Maybe I should also cover reincarnation.


Research Methodology
  • Follow this Link for a generic statement of how I intend to pursue each Chapter.
  • The method is broken down into 12, possibly iterative, stages.
  • Follow this Link for my progress dashboard on these tasks.


Chapter Introduction
  1. While I wish in this chapter to consider seriously the religious hope of resurrection, I do not want to get side-tracked onto matters of Scriptural exegesis, or into evidential matters of whether particular resurrections – specifically of Jesus – happened or not. In this regard, I’m interested only in what they take resurrection to be, and whether they provide any detailed metaphysical account of how it is supposed to work.
  2. As in the chapter on Thought Experiments, this chapter is partly aimed at checking how (my version of) animalism copes with projected situations. As such, I may extend this to other posited versions of post-mortem survival, though most are ruled out by the essentially physical nature of the human person as proposed by animalism.
  3. While not wanting to get too far off topic, especially at the end of the thesis, I want to consider some of the ethical consequences of adopting Animalism with – I presume – the lack of hope of post-mortem existence. Hence the reading material on death itself and on “matters of life and death”.
  4. Further text to be supplied.


Main Text
  1. To be supplied.


Links to Books / Papers to be Addressed4
  1. In this Chapter I will consider the following papers or book chapters (together with some others referenced by these). There are doubtless many more that are relevant and which will be addressed in the course of the thesis, but these are probably sufficient to get us going.
  2. I have divided those on the core topic of resurrection into those that are from a religio-philosophical perspective, rather than pure philosophy. In general, those written by professional philosophers are in the latter section, even if addressed to a religious audience.
  3. As the topic of death in itself – and the ethical consequences of death without post-mortem survival - are important issues, I have reading lists for these as well.
  4. Finally, in order to diagnose death, we need to know what life is! I’ve not really investigated a reading-list for this.
  5. Life:
  6. Death:
  7. Death and Ethics6:
  8. Resurrection - Purely Philosophical:
  9. Resurrection - Religio-Philosophical:
  10. Many aspects of these papers will need to be either ignored or reserved for other chapters.
  11. The motivation for these works is as follows:-
    • Gasser is the most important work I need to address.
    • Wright’s big book (hopefully) supplies all there is from the Christian side – even though the focus is on a specific – and theologically and metaphysically special – resurrection.
    • Bynum and Gillman provide background information from the Christian and Jewish perspectives, respectively.
    • Badham is a rather elementary Christian discussion, and may be rejected.
    • Corcoran is an important survey, already included in the reading for a couple of other Chapters.
    • Edwards, Flew and Penelhum are useful surveys of older material, which is useful just to read for the appropriate background. There is some considerable overlap in the selections.
    • I suppose I need to discuss death itself, hence Kagan, McMahan, Regan & Wyatt – though skipping the ethical bits.
    • Perrett and Tippler may be a little off-centre, and I may reject them on closer inspection.
    • The other individual papers – especially those by van Inwagen and Shoemaker – are probably important, but justification is to be supplied.
  12. Books / Papers Rejected: There are a number of works that I have in my possession that I considered investigating, but in the end decided not to. They are listed here, with reasons for rejection. Of course, there are very many others less tempting that appear in the topical reading lists but are not specifically mentioned here.
    • To be supplied.


The Cut
  1. There had already been a lot of cutting in the various selections of the original reading list – the reading lists attached to the Notes run on and on – and these items just represent the works in my possession (though I have sought out all that I’ve heard of that look relevant).
  2. However, the items in the lists following were given some attention, and have been culled – at least temporarily – from the lists above, where they originally appeared. I’ve not always given a reason as I’ve not studied them sufficiently closely. But, you have to draw a line somewhere.
  3. I’m well aware that the cut has not been sufficiently rigorous9. Further items beyond the items below are likely to be culled when I come to process them.
    • To be supplied …


Links to Notes
  • A lot of my notes seem to mention resurrection and the Notes fall into at least two categories10:-
    1. Thesis:-
      1. Resurrection,
      2. Life,
      3. Death,
      4. Corpses,
      5. Immortality,
      6. Reincarnation,
      7. NDEs,
      8. Makropulos Case,
      9. Life after Death.
    2. Philosophy of religion:-
      1. Resurrection,
      2. Resurrection (Metaphysics),
      3. 1 Corinthians 15,
      4. Heythrop.


Final Remarks
  1. This is work in progress.




In-Page Footnotes

Footnote 4:
  • See the section on Research Methodology for what is to be done with these.
  • The author’s surname is repeated in the text to make it easier for me to see what’s going on in the encoded text I work on.
Footnote 6:
  1. The topic of “Death and Ethics” is already a bit tangential to my thesis, but there’s a set of questions – of which two are the most important, namely:-
    • Why is death bad (for the deceased)?, and
    • Can the dead be harmed (assuming they no longer exist)?
    – in which I have an interest, and on which I wonder whether my views on Personal Identity have anything to say.
  2. Therefore, I park here a bunch of papers on these topics (more on the second than the first) that may or may not get “processed”:-
Footnote 7:
  • Unlikely to have anything to do with resurrection, but I want an excuse for reading the book!
  • Maybe belongs to Chapter 8.
Footnote 8: Hardly philosophy, but important to have read!

Footnote 9: Especially as the list is currently empty!

Footnote 10: Write-up notes are accessible via the papers or books they are write-ups of.

Note last updated: 03/11/2018 18:01:26

Footnote 34: (Theo Todman's BA Papers)

Here are my BA writings. Currently these are mostly .pdf files only. I have started to convert them to my Notes format1 and (maybe) intend to update them in the light of greater understanding (if any). However, this is not a priority task. There are four groupings, the fourth of which links to another page on my site2:-

Final Year Essays Earlier Essays Book AnalysesPaper Analyses

Here are some final-year BA papers ...

1.This is my BA Dissertation on the topic of Poverty of Stimulus arguments for the Innateness of Grammar. I enjoyed this investigation, and intend to use the kind of abductive arguments on which it is based as a model for my PhD thesis.Poverty of Stimulus
2.This is the first of three essays on Greek Philosophy. Despite my arguing that Greek Philosophy shouldn't be included in the BA, or at least not so early in the course, or not without a lot of motivation, this turned out to be my best paper. This essay is on the topic of fatalism. The Sea Battle
3.The second essay on Greek Philosophy asks whether the Third Man Argument refutes Plato's Theory of Forms. I have to admit that, but for the course, I wouldn't have looked into this subject, and those reading the essay should have a bottle of paracetamol to hand.The Third Man
4.The third essay on Greek Philosophy, asking whether Democritus was a sceptic. I have to ask who cares, but I did enjoy researching and writing the essay. Democritus a Sceptic?
5.This is the first of three essays on Modern Philosophy, and is an attempt to make the most of Locke's psychological view of personal identity. Locke on Personal Identity
6.A second essay on Modern Philosophy. It looks into Hume's Correspondence Theory between our 'ideas' (concepts) and 'impressions' (sense perception). Correspondence Theory
7.A third essay on Modern Philosophy, looking at two of Descartes's arguments that mind and body are distinct substances. Real Distinction
8.This is the first of three essays on Ethics. Caveat lector! I never got the hang of ethics. This essay discusses Mackie's Error Theory. Error Theory
9.This second ethical essay discusses whether moral relativism is absurd. Relativism Absurd?
10.This final ethical essay addresses utilitarianism. Can Mill successfully explain why it is better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied?Higher Pleasures

Here are some earlier BA essays

They are of varying quality, but useful for me to have on-line ...

1.This is a rather feable and incomplete effort addressing Jackson's Knowledge Argument against physicalism in the philosophy of mind. The topic is sufficiently important to make the essay worth completing someday ...Knowledge Argument
2.This is an essay in the philosophy of psychology asking whether "The mind is in effect a Swiss-Army knife, full of specialised modules designed for special purposes."Mind Modular?
3.Another essay in the philosophy of psychology, asking whether the concept of innateness is incoherent or unnecessary. Innateness Incoherent?
4.An essay on the topic of free will. If it is said that I did something freely, is it implied that I could have done something different?Free Will
5.An essay on the border between modern philosophy and methodology, examining Hume's argument that we have no reason to expect the future to resemble the past.Future & Past
6.Another essay on the problem of induction, investigating Hempel's paradox of the ravens.Induction
7.An essay on the philosophy of language, looking at the different uses of definite descriptions.Definite Descriptions
8.First of three essays on bodily sensations in the philosophy of mind, asking whether pains are mental objects. Rather slavishly adherent to Tim Crane's ideas (garbled, no doubt).Pains as Mental Objects
9.Essay asking whether bodily sensations are perceptions of one's body.Sensations as Perceptions
10.Final essay on this topic, asking whether I could feel a sensation to be located in someone else's body.Extraneous Bodily Sensations

Finally, here are some notes taken during the BA course

For a while, I pursued the eccentric line of trying to precis whole books, as a way of attempting to take the subject seriously. This proved to be somewhat time-consuming, so I stopped early in the third year. However, having made the effort, here are the results...
1."Dancy (Jonathan) - An Introduction to Contemporary Epistemology". This is rather a full set. At 110 pages it's not much shorter than the book. Dancy – Epistemology
2."Crane (Tim) - Elements of Mind - An Introduction to the Philosophy of Mind". A bit briefer this time at a mere 71 pages. It is graced by 153 footnotes showing where I disagreed with the esteemed author (or where I was confused, most likely). Crane – Elements of Mind
3."Fodor (Jerry) - The Modularity of Mind: An Essay on Faculty Psychology". Much shorter - only 23 pages; but then, it's only a little book. Fodor - Modularity of Mind
4."Kripke (Saul) - Naming and Necessity". Back to form. 73 pages and 156 footnotes. At least I have the justification that this is one of the "must read" philosophy books. Kripke - Naming & Necessity




In-Page Footnotes

Footnote 1: As an interim step, I now have “stub” Notes for them all, but these mostly still link to the pdfs.

Footnote 2:
  • This page seems to include almost everything I’ve written, categorised by sub-topic.
  • Many of these writings are still only in pdf form and require conversion to Notes.

Note last updated: 01/08/2017 00:11:31

Footnote 37: (Thesis - Journals)

Introduction1

  1. The reading-list for my Thesis is already too long to manage, and – I have no doubt – new material will always be coming up that I ought to be aware of.
  2. Nevertheless, I ought also to keep up to date with what’s going on in other areas of Analytic Philosophy, not to mention recent work relevant to my thesis.
  3. As a Cambridge Alumnus, I have access to JSTOR (https://www.jstor.org/) and thereby to most of the philosophical journals. The access to the text is not up-to-date, but I ought to inculcate a discipline to:-
    • Check the TOCs of the most recent issues, and mark them for future interrogation, and
    • Check the most recent issues with content, and briefly review what’s there, downloading where it looks useful.
  4. Cambridge has recently opened up Cambridge Core (https://www.cambridge.org/core/) to alumni:-
    • This allows up-to-date access to 17 philosophy journals, including those listed below.
    • There are also a great number of books available for download. I need to avoid distraction, but if there’s a book by CUP I need, and it’s here, then it’s a good place to go! Unfortunately, not all philosophy books published by CUP are available for free.
    • I need to adopt the same discipline as for JSTOR.

Relevant Cambridge Core Journals
  1. Dialogue: Canadian Philosophical Review (https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/dialogue-canadian-philosophical-review-revue-canadienne-de-philosophie)
  2. Episteme (https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/episteme)
  3. Journal of the American Philosophical Association (https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-the-american-philosophical-association)
  4. Philosophy (https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/philosophy)
  5. Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplements (https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/royal-institute-of-philosophy-supplements)
  6. Think (https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/think)

Relevant JSTOR Journals2
  1. American Philosophical Quarterly (1964-2010)
  2. Analysis (1933-2008; 2009-2013)
  3. Behavior and Philosophy (1990-2010)
  4. The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science (1950-2006; 2007-2013)
  5. Canadian Journal of Philosophy (1971-2008)
  6. Erkenntnis (1975-2010; 2011-2013)
  7. Ethical Theory and Moral Practice (1998-2010; 2011-2013)
  8. Human Studies (1978-2010; 2011-2013)
  9. Hypathia (1986-2008; 2009-2012)
  10. International Journal for Philosophy of Religion (1970-2010; 2011-2012)
  11. The Journal of Ethics (1997-2010; 2011-2013)
  12. Journal of Philosophical Logic 91972-2010; 2011-2013)
  13. The Journal of Philosophy (1921-2008)
  14. Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes (1939-2010)
  15. Mind (1876-2006; 2007-2012)
  16. The Monist (1890-2008; 2009-2014)
  17. Noûs (1967-2003; 2004-2012)
  18. Philosophical Issues (1991-1998)
  19. Philosophical Perspectives (1987-1995)
  20. The Philosophical Quarterly (1950-2008; 2009-2012)
  21. The Philosophical Review (1892-2008; 2009-2011)
  22. Philosophical Studies (1950-2010; 2011-2013)
  23. Philosophy (1931-2008; 2009-2012)
  24. Philosophy and Phenomenal Research (1940-2008; 2009-2013)
  25. Philosophy & Public Affairs (1971-2008; 2009-2013)
  26. Phronesis (1955-2008; 2009-2013)
  27. Proceedings and Addresses of the American Philosophical Association (1927-2010)
  28. Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society (1887-2008; 2009-2013)
  29. Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society: Supplementary Volumes (1918-2008; 2009-2013)
  30. Religious Studies (1965-2008; 2009-2013)
  31. The Review of Metaphysics (1947-2010)
  32. Synthese (1936-2010; 2011-2013)




In-Page Footnotes

Footnote 1:
  • This Note used to include a (rather short) list of “interesting” papers that I’d discovered from the journals below, but missed the cut as far as reading was concerned.
  • I’ve abandoned this idea as it’s too much work for little benefit.
Footnote 2:
  • The dates for which I have access to free Text appear in brackets, with a second date-range where appropriate, for papers that can be purchased (or borrowed in hard-copy).
  • This list hasn’t been updated since January 2015, so there may be new journals of interest, and the dates will have moved on by 3 years.

Note last updated: 05/04/2018 10:48:00

Footnote 38: (Status: Philosophy of Religion (2018 - September))

Rationale for this Project

  • See my Christian page and onward links from there for an explanation of how I got in to and out of evangelical Christianity. This is still a live issue for me, and the reason I originally undertook formal philosophical training.
  • The connection to my current philosophical researches arises from the standard religious hope that resurrection – or some other form of post-mortem survival – is possible. This is a cornerstone of religious claims and expectations, at least in the Abrahamic religions, from those of suicide bombers to those of more pacific persons. I wish to go back to the considerations that originally motivated Locke and research the metaphysical possibility of resurrection for beings such as us. My current opinion is that resurrection for human beings is metaphysically impossible2, given that substance dualism is false.
  • In late September 2010 I took the Philosophy of Religion Module of a 2-year part time MA in Philosophy and Religion at Heythrop College (http://www.heythrop.ac.uk/), University of London. Follow the links for my Personal Statement, Interview Write-up, and Course Outline. I decided not to proceed with the MA but do intend to follow up on7 the many issues raised.
  • During 2016 I assisted with the Appendices of my friend’s PhD Thesis on the Narrative Structure of the Acts of the Apostles, building a website. See "Mansell (Peter) - Bottom Up Reading of Acts".
  • In August 2017 I was asked by Michael J. Alter to review pre-publication his book on the theology of the Resurrection. Unfortunately it turned out to be too much work, and I only commented on the first section.

Summary of Progress during July - September 2018
  1. I spent 40 hours in 3Q18 on this Project, or related work (148 hours YTD, where for "YTD" - Year to Date - I mean the (academic) year that commenced in October 2017). That's 307% of the planned effort (87% YTD). Overall, 7% of my Project effort in the Quarter was directed towards this project (making 6% YTD) - as against 3% planned (7% YTD).
  2. The only highlight of the quarter was that Pete asked me to proof-read his book ("Mansell (Peter) - The Tragedy of the Twelve: The Rise and Fall of the ‘Mega-Apostles’ in Luke-Acts"), based on his PhD, which has now been granted. I had to do this against a tight deadline, which meant that I spent much more time than planned on this project.
  3. Further details of activity in the last quarter are given below:-
Religion (Total Hours = 33.5)
Religion Background (Total Hours = 6)
  1. Religion Background - Admin
  2. Religion Background - Discussions (Total Hours = 5)
    • Interaction - Discussions at King's (1 hour)
    • Interaction - Discussions with Mike & Sylvia (1 hour)
    • "Interaction - Discussions with Pete" (0.75 hours)
    • Interaction - Discussions with Pete & Caro (2.25 hours)


Plans for the Near Future
Summary of Progress to Date

I’ve hived off the history to a separate document, which still requires a major update.



In-Page Footnotes

Footnote 2:
  • Or if not strictly impossible – rather unlikely, as the candidates for enabling some sort of physical continuity – from luz bones to “corpse swapping” – have multiple problems.
  • However, there are some interesting ideas by Dean Zimmerman, most recently in "Zimmerman (Dean) - Bodily Resurrection: The Falling Elevator Model Revisited", that argue the contrary.
  • Also, transhumanists – who are almost following a religion – are often hopeful of post-mortem survival. I have no metaphysical worries about “cryonic suspension”, and subsequent resuscitation, but think that uploading is incoherent.
Footnote 7:
  • This pious hope has been sitting unactioned for nearly 8 years now!
  • The proximate cause of my failure was missing a deadline for my essay on the Ontological Argument, but a more serious reason was that it was all a waste of time (for me, given my research interests). Peter Vardy had warned me about anno domini, with the claim that original work after the age of 65 is unlikely. I hope this is false, as I’ve ignored the warning, and am about to reach that milestone.
Footnote 8:
  • While I couldn't submit to Michael Alter's deadlines and the amount of work required, I ought to at least read these books.
Footnote 10:
  • Julie and I attended the first part of this conference in April, in Reading, but we had to escape early as the lock on our back door in Billericay had broken and Nat couldn’t get in.

Note last updated: 10/10/2018 16:43:41

Footnote 40: (Aeon Papers - Summary Document)

Links to Topics on this Page

AestheticsAnimalsAstronomyComputingConsciousness
EducationEthicsEvolutionGeographyHistory
IslamLanguageLawLiteratureMathematics
MedicineMetaphilosophyMusicPersonal IdentityPolitics
PsychologyReligionScienceTranshumanism*** Pending ***
Introduction
  1. The Aeon1 eZine:-
    1. Covers a number of topics that I’m particularly interested in, from a semi-professional point of view.
    2. It also covers others that are of more general interest, for which I’ve read papers as they crop up but don’t really have much time to comment on.
    3. Finally, there are others – and particularly videos – which are not as relevant, and which I’ve ignored. In 2017 these were relatively few and far between (though in general I’ve ignored all the videos). Occasionally I’ve read or viewed them, but not incurred the overhead of logging them in my database.
  2. As with all papers, I categorise them by subject, topic and sub-topic: up to three of each. As such, it is possible to cross-refer the subjects under discussion. But as I have about 22,000 papers of one sort or another, this cross-categorisation leads to something of a morass.
  3. Consequently, I’ve decided to list the main topics that I’m interested in that have come up (this will be an on-going job, requiring occasional refinement), and to list the papers that fall under them. That way, it’ll be easier to see how the various authors address the same topics, and in particular how they disagree.
  4. The topics appear in the table above, with links to the lists. The topic of Personal Identity is further broken down in the list.
  5. Unfortunately, there is some need for cross-categorisation, but I’ll have to resist this and live with the deficiency. Multiple-listings will make the lists too long and confusing. Connections will need to be made between the papers themselves in such cases.
  6. I have now logged by category all the papers I’ve accessed since joining the list at the beginning of 2017 – hence developing the categories. I now need to add – usually brief – comments, making use of a disclaimer as necessary.
  7. Stimulating though this exercise is – I’ve found it’s taking too much time away from my research, so I’ve had to put it mostly on hold. What I decided to do in 4Q17 was just to categorise and read those items that really relate to my research. The others cannot for now be categorised or added to my database, but – as a weekly exercise – I added the authors, titles, dates and links in an uncategorised list.
  8. For 2018, I’ve decided that a further refocussing of effort will be required. From now on I’ll only add those papers that are strictly associated with my research, or are particularly interesting. I hope to comment on those papers already logged.
  9. I must also note here that I treat a few other articles I come across that are of similar standard to Aeon, and treat them as though they were Aeon, listing them in the cross-reference and filing them with the Aeon articles proper, for want of a better home. I note this against the individual papers.


Papers
  1. Aesthetics
  2. Animals / Animal Rights
  3. Astronomy / Cosmology
  4. Computing
  5. Consciousness
  6. Education
  7. Ethics7
  8. Evolution
  9. Geography
  10. History
  11. Islam & Philosophy
  12. Language / Linguistics
  13. Law
  14. Literature
  15. Mathematics
  16. Medicine / Health
  17. Metaphilosophy11
  18. Music
  19. Personal Identity13
  20. Politics / Economics / Sociology
  21. Psychology
  22. Religion
  23. Science
  24. Transhumanism42 / AI43


Pending Items (In descending publication-date sequence)
  1. Marcel Zentner, “Men want beauty, women want wealth, and other unscientific tosh”, 21 December, 2017, Aeon: Zentner - Men want beauty, women want wealth, and other unscientific tosh (https://aeon.co/ideas/men-want-beauty-women-want-wealth-and-other-unscientific-tosh)
  2. Nadia Berenstein, “The flavour revolutionary”, 19 December, 2017, Aeon: Berenstein - The flavour revolutionary (https://aeon.co/essays/the-man-who-shook-the-united-states-by-its-tastebuds)
  3. Tage Rai, Piercarlo Valdesolo & Jesse Graham, “Our enemies are human: that’s why we want to kill them”, 13 December, 2017, Aeon: Rai - Our enemies are human: that’s why we want to kill them (https://aeon.co/ideas/our-enemies-are-human-thats-why-we-want-to-kill-them)
  4. Bruce Robbins, “How Orwell used wartime rationing to argue for global justice”, 12 December, 2017, Aeon: Robbins - How Orwell used wartime rationing to argue for global justice (https://aeon.co/ideas/how-orwell-used-wartime-rationing-to-argue-for-global-justice)
  5. Melissa Feinberg, “The other side of the curtain”, 11 December, 2017, Aeon: Feinberg - The other side of the curtain (https://aeon.co/essays/cold-war-propaganda-the-truth-belonged-to-no-one-country)
  6. Samantha Muka, “Stop boycotting SeaWorld if you care about marine conservation”, 08 December, 2017, Aeon: Muka - Stop boycotting SeaWorld if you care about marine conservation (https://aeon.co/ideas/stop-boycotting-seaworld-if-you-care-about-marine-conservation)
  7. M M Owen, “Freud in the scanner”, 07 December, 2017, Aeon: Owen - Freud in the scanner (https://aeon.co/essays/can-neuroscience-rehabilitate-freud-for-the-age-of-the-brain)
  8. Iason Athanasiadis, “Everyone in the world should be taxed on their energy footprint”, 06 December, 2017, Aeon: Athanasiadis - Everyone in the world should be taxed on their energy footprint (https://aeon.co/ideas/everyone-in-the-world-should-be-taxed-on-their-energy-footprint)
  9. Lary Wallace, “Touching the sky”, 06 December, 2017, Aeon: Wallace - Touching the sky (https://aeon.co/essays/daredevilry-combines-sport-magic-and-machismo)
  10. Julia Christensen, Guido Giglioni & Manos Tsakiris, “‘Let the soul dangle’: how mind-wandering spurs creativity”, 05 December, 2017, Aeon: Christensen - ‘Let the soul dangle’: how mind-wandering spurs creativity (https://aeon.co/ideas/let-the-soul-dangle-how-mind-wandering-spurs-creativity)
  11. André Spicer, “How to fight work bullshit (and keep your job and your dignity)”, 04 December, 2017, Aeon: Spicer - How to fight work bullshit (https://aeon.co/ideas/how-to-fight-work-bullshit-and-keep-your-job-and-your-dignity)
  12. Erik Linstrum, “The empire dreamt back”, 04 December, 2017, Aeon: Linstrum - The empire dreamt back (https://aeon.co/essays/britains-imperial-dream-catchers-and-the-truths-of-empire)
  13. Tomas Engelthaler & Thomas T. Hills, “Porridge is funnier than oatmeal, and booby is funnier still”, 28 November, 2017, Aeon: Engelthaler - Porridge is funnier than oatmeal, and booby is funnier still (https://aeon.co/ideas/why-porridge-is-funnier-than-oatmeal-and-booby-is-funnier-still)
  14. Jens Jakob Andersen, “Why marathon runners in the United States are getting slower”, 21 November, 2017, Aeon: Andersen - Why marathon runners in the United States are getting slower (https://aeon.co/ideas/why-marathon-runners-in-the-united-states-are-getting-slower)
  15. Philip Mirowski, “Against citizen science”, 20 November, 2017, Aeon: Mirowski - Against citizen science (https://aeon.co/essays/is-grassroots-citizen-science-a-front-for-big-business)
  16. Massimo Pigliucci, “When I help you, I also help myself: on being a cosmopolitan”, 17 November, 2017, Aeon: Pigliucci - When I help you, I also help myself (https://aeon.co/ideas/when-i-help-you-i-also-help-myself-on-being-a-cosmopolitan)
  17. Guy D. Middleton, “Do civilisations collapse?”, 16 November, 2017, Aeon: Middleton - Do civilisations collapse? (https://aeon.co/essays/what-the-idea-of-civilisational-collapse-says-about-history)
  18. Pavlo Shopin, “Rough, smooth or deep: why the sound of a voice is multisensory”, 15 November, 2017, Aeon: Shopin - Rough, smooth or deep: why the sound of a voice is multisensory (https://aeon.co/ideas/rough-smooth-or-deep-why-the-sound-of-a-voice-is-multisensory)
  19. Julian Strube, “How socialism helped to seed the landscape of modern religion”, 14 November, 2017, Aeon: Strube - How socialism helped to seed the landscape of modern religion (https://aeon.co/ideas/how-socialism-helped-to-seed-the-landscape-of-modern-religion)
  20. Kimberley Brownlee, “Stop labelling people who commit crimes ‘criminals’”, 10 November, 2017, Aeon: Brownlee - Stop labelling people who commit crimes ‘criminals’ (https://aeon.co/ideas/stop-labelling-people-who-commit-crime-criminals)
  21. David Sbarra, “Psychology’s power tools”, 09 November, 2017, Aeon: Sbarra - Psychology’s power tools (https://aeon.co/essays/this-is-why-cognitive-behavioural-therapy-works-so-well)
  22. Wendy Orent, “When evolution is not a slow dance but a fast race to survive”, 08 November, 2017, Aeon: Orent - When evolution is not a slow dance but a fast race to survive (https://aeon.co/ideas/when-evolution-is-not-a-slow-dance-but-a-fast-race-to-survive)
  23. Benjamin C. Waterhouse, “The small business myth”, 08 November, 2017, Aeon: Waterhouse - The small business myth (https://aeon.co/essays/what-does-small-business-really-contribute-to-economic-growth)
  24. Mark Kukis, “War once helped build nations, now it destroys them”, 07 November, 2017, Aeon: Kukis - War once helped build nations, now it destroys them (https://aeon.co/ideas/war-once-helped-build-nations-now-it-destroys-them)
  25. Marc A Edwards & Siddhartha Roy, “Science is broken”, 07 November, 2017, Aeon: Roy - Science is broken (https://aeon.co/essays/science-is-a-public-good-in-peril-heres-how-to-fix-it)
  26. Scott Atran, “Alt-Right or jihad?”, 06 November, 2017, Aeon: Atran - Alt-Right or jihad? (https://aeon.co/essays/radical-islam-and-the-alt-right-are-not-so-different)
  27. Elizabeth Hellmuth Margulis, “Music is not for ears”, 02 November, 2017, Aeon: Margulis - Music is not for ears (https://aeon.co/essays/music-is-in-your-brain-and-your-body-and-your-life)
  28. Jeremy Adelman, “Why the idea that the world is in terminal decline is so dangerous”, 01 November, 2017, Aeon: Adelman - Why the idea that the world is in terminal decline is so dangerous (https://aeon.co/ideas/why-the-idea-that-the-world-is-in-terminal-decline-is-so-dangerous)
  29. Bryan W Van Norden, “Western philosophy is racist”, 31 October, 2017, Aeon: Van Norden - Western philosophy is racist (https://aeon.co/essays/why-the-western-philosophical-canon-is-xenophobic-and-racist)
  30. Chris Barker, “Should life in jail be worse than outside, on principle?”, 31 October, 2017, Aeon: Barker - Should life in jail be worse than outside, on principle? (https://aeon.co/ideas/should-life-in-jail-be-worse-than-outside-on-principle)
  31. James McConnachie, “Be amazed”, 30 October, 2017, Aeon: McConnachie - Be amazed (https://aeon.co/essays/how-walking-a-labyrinth-can-trace-a-route-to-self-knowledge)
  32. Tonja Jacobi & Dylan Schweers, “How men continue to interrupt even the most powerful women”, 26 May, 2017, Aeon: Jacobi - How men continue to interrupt even the most powerful women (https://aeon.co/ideas/how-men-continue-to-interrupt-even-the-most-powerful-women)
  33. Vicki Larson, “Marriage should not come with any social benefits or privileges”, 16 May, 2017, Aeon: Larson - Marriage should not come with any social benefits or privileges (https://aeon.co/ideas/marriage-should-not-come-with-any-social-benefits-or-privileges)
  34. Skye C Cleary, “Simone de Beauvoir’s political philosophy resonates today”, 10 March, 2017, Aeon: Cleary - Simone de Beauvoir’s political philosophy resonates today (https://aeon.co/ideas/simone-de-beauvoirs-political-philosophy-resonates-today)
  35. Joel Mokyr, “How Europe became so rich”, 15 February, 2017, Aeon: Mokyr - How Europe became so rich (https://aeon.co/essays/how-did-europe-become-the-richest-part-of-the-world)
  36. Richard W Orange, “Latte pappas”, 18 January, 2017, Aeon: Orange - Latte pappas (https://aeon.co/essays/swedens-hands-on-dads-and-the-hormones-of-fatherhood)
  37. David Farrier, “Deep time’s uncanny future is full of ghostly human traces”, 31 October, 2016, Aeon: Farrier - Deep time’s uncanny future is full of ghostly human traces (https://aeon.co/ideas/deep-time-s-uncanny-future-is-full-of-ghostly-human-traces)
  38. Joyce E Chaplin, “The hand-held’s tale”, 16 October, 2015, Aeon: Chaplin - The hand-held’s tale (https://aeon.co/essays/where-did-our-passion-for-the-handheld-device-originate)
  39. Ted Scheinman, “What lies beneath”, 28 July, 2015, Aeon: Scheinman - What lies beneath (https://aeon.co/essays/why-do-archaeological-fraudsters-work-so-hard-to-deceive-us)
  40. Stewart Brand, “Rethinking extinction”, 21 April, 2015, Aeon: Brand - Rethinking extinction (https://aeon.co/essays/we-are-not-edging-up-to-a-mass-extinction)
  41. Dimitris Xygalatas, “Trial by fire”, 19 September, 2014, Aeon: Xygalatas - Trial by fire (https://aeon.co/essays/how-extreme-rituals-forge-intense-social-bonds)
  42. D. Watkins, “Stoop stories”, 26 June, 2014, Aeon: Watkins - Stoop stories (https://aeon.co/essays/these-are-my-two-baltimores-black-and-white)
  43. Sarah Scoles, “Galactic position system”, 20 May, 2014, Aeon: Scoles - Galactic position system (https://aeon.co/essays/do-you-know-where-you-are-in-the-milky-way)
  44. Thomas Wells, “Votes for the future”, 08 May, 2014, Aeon: Wells - Votes for the future (https://aeon.co/essays/we-need-to-listen-to-our-future-citizens-here-s-how-to-tune-in)
  45. Peter Whiteley, “The fire burns yet”, 25 November, 2013, Aeon: Whiteley - The fire burns yet (https://aeon.co/essays/the-love-of-land-still-burns-bright-for-native-americans)
  46. Tim Parks, “Inner peace”, 26 July, 2013, Aeon: Parks - Inner peace (https://aeon.co/essays/is-the-sound-of-silence-the-end-of-the-self)
  47. Julian Baggini, “I still love Kierkegaard”, 06 May, 2013, Aeon: Baggini - I still love Kierkegaard (https://aeon.co/essays/happy-birthday-kierkegaard-we-need-you-now)
  48. Helen Macdonald, “Nest of spies”, 26 February, 2013, Macdonald - Nest of spies (https://aeon.co/essays/the-tale-of-a-spymaster-and-his-avian-double)
  49. John Quiggin, “This world is enough”, 15 January, 2013, Aeon: Quiggin - This world is enough (https://aeon.co/essays/we-can-end-world-poverty-without-destroying-the-planet)
  50. Stephen J Pyne, “The ice inferno”, 11 January, 2013, Aeon: Pyne - The ice inferno (https://aeon.co/essays/antarctica-a-place-of-wide-horizons-and-fragile-selves)




In-Page Footnotes

Footnote 1: Footnote 7:
  • I don’t have a Note on Ethics per se, but
  • I do have a Note on the allegation that Personal Identity is a Forensic Property of the individual.
  • I’ve also included those topics – like “the good life” – that tend to feature in ethics courses.
Footnote 11:
  • This will probably include general philosophy until a get a critical mass for further categories.
Footnote 13:
  • This is a bucket-list for those items under the topic of Personal Identity that aren’t broken out under other categories.
  • See the full Jump Table here.
Footnote 23:
  • I don’t yet have a note for sexual Identity.
  • Some of these Papers may really belong under Politics.
Footnote 42:
  • The main Note is this one.
  • However, I intend to include such matters as Neuroscience and AI under this head, where they are relevant to hopes of Transhumanism.
Footnote 43:
  • I’ll need to re-house those items that are nothing to do with Transhumanism.
  • Currently, anything to do with computing or the internet appears here.

Note last updated: 30/11/2018 19:48:00

Footnote 43: (Status: Consciousness Studies (2018 - September))

Rationale for this Project

  • This is a philosophical topic that has interested me for many years. It would have been my primary area of research, had it not been so difficult and so heavily populated with philosophers.
  • It can be considered as a supporting project for two of my other projects.
    1. Personal Identity (because of consciousness of self) and
    2. Philosophy of Religion (as phenomenal consciousness gives prima facie difficulties for materialism).
  • This project remains in mothballs, except insofar as topics are required explicitly to support my other projects.

Summary of Progress during 17Q4 - 18Q3
  1. I have spent 17 hours YTD on this Project, or related work, where for "YTD" - Year to Date - I mean the (academic) year that commenced in October 2017). That's 65% of the planned effort. Overall, 1% of my Project effort YTD has been directed towards this project.
  2. Not much to report. At last managed to read "Luria (A.R.) - The Mind of a Mnemonist". Minimal progress on "Papineau (David) - Introducing Consciousness". Discovered "Dehaene (Stanislas) - Consciousness and the Brain: Deciphering How the Brain Codes Our Thoughts".
  3. YTD Activity3
    Consciousness (Total Hours = 17.25)
  4. Progress (if any) in the last quarter can be obtained from the relevant section of my Summary Task List.

Plans for the Near Future:
Priority Reading Material

The priority books are given below.
  1. "Baars (Bernard), Banks (William) & Newman (James) - Essential Sources in the Scientific Study of Consciousness"
  2. "Block (Ned), Flanagan (Owen) & Guzeldere (Guven) - The Nature of Consciousness"
  3. "Carruthers (Peter) - Phenomenal Consciousness"
  4. "Chalmers (David) - The Conscious Mind: In Search of a Fundamental Theory"
  5. "Churchland (Paul) - The Engine of Reason, the Seat of the Soul: Philosophical Journey into the Brain"
  6. "Crick (Francis) - The Astonishing Hypothesis - The Scientific Search for the Soul"
  7. "Dehaene (Stanislas) - Consciousness and the Brain: Deciphering How the Brain Codes Our Thoughts"
  8. "Dennett (Daniel) - Consciousness Explained"
  9. "Gray (Jeffrey) - Consciousness: Creeping up on the Hard Problem"
  10. "Hodgson (David) - The Mind Matters - Consciousness and Choice in a Quantum World"
  11. "Levine (Joseph) - Purple Haze: The Puzzle of Consciousness"
  12. "Marcel (Anthony J.) & Bisiach (Edoardo) - Consciousness in Contemporary Science"
  13. "McGinn (Colin) - The Problem of Consciousness: Essays Towards a Resolution"
  14. "Noe (Alva) - Out of Our Heads: Why You Are Not Your Brain, and Other Lessons from the Biology of Consciousness"
  15. "Papineau (David) - Introducing Consciousness"
  16. "Papineau (David) - Thinking About Consciousness"
  17. "Penrose (Roger) - The Emperor's New Mind"
  18. "Penrose (Roger) - Shadows of the Mind"
  19. "Searle (John) - The Rediscovery of the Mind"
  20. "Smith (Quentin) & Jokic (Aleksandar) - Consciousness: New Philosophical Essays"

Additionally, I’ve started to catalogue my back-issues of Journal of Consciousness Studies, for which the link below is the jumping-off point:-

→ "JCS - Journal of Consciousness Studies (Consolidated List)"


Other Material



In-Page Footnotes

Footnote 3:
  • As this project is substantially inactive, I don’t update the text between quarters other than at the end of the academic year.
  • Hence, the YTD Activity is to make this task easier, and to give a clearer idea of what – if anything – has been going on in the interim.

Note last updated: 10/10/2018 16:43:41

Footnote 44: (Theo Todman's Blog)

This Blog continues to evolve over time, though suffers from long periods of stasis. I'm not sure whether it should count as a “real” blog, but I intend it as a general dumping ground for discussions that don’t obviously fit elsewhere, or which are hidden about the site but to which I wish to draw attention.

The entire blog and the individual entries use my patent “Note” technology which I developed for my more formally philosophical investigations into Personal Identity, which is why it comes with the usual cross-referencing baggage, though the reading-lists are usually switched off. Here is the “Jump Table” for the entire Blog, which allows quick access to the various sub-topics. One day I may make these tables topic-specific, but currently I think the cross-pollination a potential “good thing”.

In the table below, individual notes will say – in the “Reference” column – whether they have a printable version. The motivation behind the “unprintable1” versions – marked as “Note” – is the hyper-linking, more relevant in some texts than others. If a word is underlined and followed by a superscript, clicking on the underlined word will usually lead to further enlightenment or obfuscation. Underlining with a subscript links to a footnote within the Note itself. The “printable” versions show the level to which the print goes. L0 (“Level 0”) is just the main Note. “L1” has the main Note and all Notes referenced by the main Note, and so on. If the reading list is carried through to the printable Note, this is shown by “, R”.

Some of these entries are discussions between me and an interlocutor or correspondent. Comments that belong to the correspondent appear in a different colour, a rather nasty shade of purple. To allow for candour, I’ve in general not been explicit about the identities of correspondents, though those who know me well may be able to make deductions in some cases. If anyone wants their identity revealed (or even further disguised), no doubt they will let me know. I have to admit that this “Notes” procedure with interlocutors hasn’t worked very well, and fragments the conversation somewhat.

Date Topic Reference
2 August 2018Tottering Towers & Listing Buildings: This is an account – theoretical as well as practical – of the problems that can arise for those with the responsibility for a Listed Building, illustrated by my own experiences with Coxes Farm. It is currently work in progress.Note
→ Printable (L0)
31 August 2017Aeon: Throughout 2017 I attempted to keep up with all relevant (or at least interesting) papers posted on a daily basis to Aeon. I attempted to categorise all the papers and hoped to add comments against each, but – as with most of my many projects – it turned out to be too much work, and since the end of 2017 it has been on the back burner. However, it was quite stimulating while in progress, and I learnt a lot, having read 500-odd papers, and commented on quite a few of them. Follow the link for more information.Note
→ Printable (L0)
→ Printable (L0, R)
31 January 2016Somerset Maugham Short Stories: This may not have been worth the effort, but I was – in my youth – impressed by W Somerset Maugham’s short stories. In 2015 I came across a volume of these, and over the next couple of years read them and made notes on the ethical issues that arose. For completeness, I supplied summaries of each story. Because of the size of the task, the results are split over two Notes.Part 1
→ Note
→ Printable (L0)
→ Printable (L0, R)

Part 2
→ Note
→ Printable (L0)
→ Printable (L0, R)
19 November 2013Bach's Greatest Hits: This is an attempt to exorcise a recent obsession with J.S. Bach, and in particular with his St. Luke Passion, Passacaglia and Fugue, and the Chaconne from the Second Partita for solo violin. The entry is mainly links to YouTube with a few jottings.Note
→ Printable (L0, R)
10 June 2013Biblical Archaeology: I happened upon three 21st century controversies in Biblical Archaeology – the so-called “King Solomon's Tablet of Stone”, “James Ossuary” and “Talpiot Tomb” – which set me thinking about how controversies in archaeology are resolved, and whether the issues matter. This is work in progress, if not currently so.Note
→ Printable (L0, R)
31 March 2011James Le Fanu: I came across an article on the giraffe by James Le Fanu in The Oldie. What could he possibly be saying? This is work in progress, though not being progressed at the moment.Note
→ Printable (L0)
→ Printable (L1, R)
21 February 2011The Singularity: This will be a review of an overly-optimistic article from Time entitled 2045: The Year Man Becomes Immortal. This is currently work in progress.Note
→ Printable (L0)
→ Printable (L0, R)
→ Printable (L1)
13 February 2011Megawoosh: I was forwarded a “viral video” entitled Megawoosh under the cover of “Who did the calculations for this water slide?”. It turns out to be a clever German advert for Microsoft Project, but it’s fun to watch …Note
→ Printable (L0, R)
→ Printable (L1)
1 February 2011Contemporary Islamic Thought: I considered taking the course “Unity and Diversity in Contemporary Islamic Thought” at Heythrop, and contacted a friend from my Birkbeck days who has converted from Roman Catholicism to Islam. That conversation didn’t get far, but a few (unresolved) issues were raised. And then another friend sent me a web-link …Note
→ Printable (L0, R)
→ Printable (L1)
26 January 2011Experts: A further discussion with two Christian friends, mainly on the way the authority of experts ought or ought not to structure our beliefs.Note
→ Printable (L0)
→ Printable (L0, R)
→ Printable (L1)
28 April 2010Unmerited Suffering & Hominid Evolution: A discussion of two issues – the difficulties for theism of unmerited suffering, and the scientific status of the various current theories of hominid evolution.Note
→ Printable (L0, R)
→ Printable (L1)
22 January 2010Hartnett, Carmeli and a Young Earth: Cosmological Relativity and a young Earth. This correspondence arose following receipt of a book that purports to explain how we can see the stars if the universe is only 6,000 years old.Note
→ Printable (L0, R)
→ Printable (L1)
→ Printable (L2)
20 January 2010Haiti and the Problem of Evil: This discussion with a couple of friends was stimulated by the receipt of a brief article following the Haitian earthquake, and ensuing humanitarian crisis, on the BBC News Magazine website, alerted by the author on Philos_List.Note
→ Printable (L0, R)
→ Printable (L1)
→ Printable (L5)
14 July 2009Virgin Birth: Response to some comments on an ancient booklet of mine on the Virgin Birth of Christ.Note
→ Printable (L0)
21 February 2009Triplet Parapsychology: I was idly watching TV while eating my dinner circa midnight last Tuesday, when a program on Identical Triplets came on ITV1. Just slotted in was a claim and supposed experiment to show that if one triplet feels pain, the others do, at least subliminally. This must have been a spoof, but was completely straight-faced. Follow the link opposite for more information, and my reasoning behind being unwilling to be convinced by the facts.Note
→ Printable (L0)
14 February 2009Creationist Bananas: I received an email from Philos_List requesting submissions for the world’s worst argument. A suggested candidate was that from a creationist group, suggesting that the banana is a good illustration of the “Paley’s watch” argument. Follow the link for the background, and my thoughts.Note
→ Printable (L0)
14 February 2009Jamie Bulger's Killers: Julie received an email petition asking for “something to be done about” the plan to settle the killers of Jamie Bulger in Australia. This is a complex moral issue. Follow the link for my thoughts, though I’m not altogether comfortable with them. In fact, it turns out that the email has been circulating aimlessly for 8 years, and contains numerous inaccuracies. I wish I’d just binned it.Note
→ Printable (L0)
29 April 2008Coldplay - The Hardest Part: A bridge friend forwarded on to me a circular email raving about certain aspects of the Coldplay video The Hardest Part, available on YouTube. The comments seemed to miss the import of the video (indeed, to get it completely round the wrong way) – but the affair raises some interesting questions in philosophical aesthetics on which I’d welcome the thoughts of experts.Note
→ Printable (L0)
1 January 2008Loretto Chapel: An email from a bridge friend with a link to a YouTube video about the Loretto Chapel. I've now lost the link, but it was probably Loretto Chapel 1 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvid_KnFq7s). See also Loretto Chapel 2 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yoWknpkIJDE). The "miraculous staircase" might well be a marvel, but it's not a miracle, nor did St. Joseph have a hand in it.Note
→ Printable (L0, R)
→ Printable (L1)
29 November 2007Mad, Bad or God?: I got this question from Sylvia: “I remember you saying you were never persuaded by the “mad, bad or God” argument. This has cropped up a couple of times recently, and I can’t remember what your alternative is. Do you mention this on your website somewhere, and if so, where?”.Note
→ Printable (L0, R)
→ Printable (L1)
10 November 2007Tiahuanaco: I received an email from a friend suggesting that Tiahuanaco - an ancient city in the Andes, close to Lake Titicaca - is evidence for a global flood. I was not convinced.Note
17 August 2007Personal Identity and Moral Action: Another out of the blue query – this time about the interaction of Ethics with Personal Identity.Note
→ Printable (L6)
15 August 2007Carthusians - Hugh: An out of the blue query about Carthusians, and subsequent correspondence. Someone does look at my website after all.Note
→ Printable (L6)
14 August 2007Gordon: Another Oldie. An email from a friend I’d not heard from for 10 years at least. His email address now bounces, so this is by way of a response to an interrupted discussion.Note
→ Printable (L6)
4 August 2007Simon: This entry antedates those that precede it, but is still on-going. It is a discussion between me and a friend and former HSBC colleague who now lives with his family in New York. His 16-year-old daughter had just become a Christian, and he needs some philosophical counselling. It is unusual in being initiated by a respondent.Note
→ Printable (L4)
23 July 2007Spain: Herewith the account of some vicissitudes on an impromptu holiday to Spain.Part 1
→ Note
→ Printable (L4)

Part 2
→ Note
22 July 2007Bible – Pluses and Minuses: This is my list of worries about the Bible. It’s only here because it’s got no other home to go to. It’s not worth reading as I’ve only just started it (chapters on which I’ve something to say are indicated by superscripted hyperlinks). I intend to produce a parallel, but even more naïve, commentary on the Koran, which I hope will not involve me in the receipt of a fatwa.Note
→ Printable (L4)
15 July 2007Jack and Sheila: The account of a discussion with some old friends, followed by an outreach meeting at a Baptist Church. Sounds dull, but such events can be important. There are some affinities with the item below.Note
→ Printable (L4)
7 July 2007Sylvia: Today I had a discussion on the topic of “Why I am no longer an active Christian”. Here is an attempted account of the discussion, together with some general points about extempore debate.Note
→ Printable (L4)
→ Printable (L4)
11 May 2007Never Let Me Go: At a former colleague’s retirement lunch, we got talking about the menu, which lead on to the topic of vegetarianism, to which persuasion my friend was persuaded. He loaned me a book, "Ishiguro (Kazuo) - Never Let Me Go", which I read with some interest, but wasn’t fully clear on the connection. So, I jotted down some notes, emailed them off, and awaited feedback. To date, none has come, of course. The story of my life.Note
→ Printable (L4)




In-Page Footnotes

Footnote 1:
  • Actually, all Notes are perfectly printable at Level 0.

Note last updated: 01/12/2018 15:31:41

Footnote 45: (Website: Maintenance Dashboard)

This page contains control-tables indicating when the various segments of the website have been regenerated. Manual updates of individual pages are made all the time, and cross-reference links are maintained daily by automatic processes. The triggers for the regeneration of some pages are manual, others are automatic. However, it is inefficient to regenerate everything affected by a change in real time, and regenerating the whole site takes about a day to run, so I only carry it out once a month. The tables below indicate what was generated when.

But first, a few other useful links:-

  1. For a full list of Archived Notes follow this Link. The purpose of this page is to allow me easily to see which archived notes are superfluous, so I can delete them.
  2. For lists of External Links from my site, follow this Link. I am in the process of using these lists to check the links, correcting (where possible) those that are broken.
  3. Follow this link for a Note that lists those Notes and Papers (and maybe in the future other objects – Books & Authors) that have incorrect links to other Notes, using the "quadruple plus" mark-up to an invalid Note Title. The page should be empty.
  4. Follow this link for the Test page showing the results of the latest run to automatically hyperlink objects on the database using Key-Words.
  5. Follow this link for the latest Log of Outstanding Developments for my website.

Table of Sub-Reports

This page shows the following tables:-

Title & LinkLast RegeneratedDays AgoTime Taken
31/10/2018 21:46:44305.05 hours
01/11/2018 23:57:55298.5 hours
02/11/2018 08:52:45293.18 hours
01/11/2018 23:02:502932 minutes
02/11/2018 11:24:52291.3 hours
01/11/2018 02:10:48303 minutes
31/10/2018 18:35:08301.15 hours
01/11/2018 18:50:31293.53 hours
31/10/2018 19:40:25301.5 hours
01/11/2018 14:08:20292.13 hours
   26.93 hours


In the above table, the time the routine takes to create the page-set in question is given (for my own purposes). Most of these routines are now taking far too long and now approximate 27 hours in total, so require investigation. "Days Ago" shows how many days prior to the production of this page (which was on 01/12/2018 at 13:47:29) the indicated page-set was produced.


Book / Paper (etc) Lists


This table lists the collections of Books and Philosophy Papers in my collection, with special emphasis on those related to my Thesis on "Personal Identity":-

Page Title & LinkLast UpdateDays AgoMinutes to Regenerate
Book Citations30/11/2018 23:01:5301.8
Books30/11/2018 23:02:0200.1
Books - Blackberry-compatible30/11/2018 23:03:0001
Books - By Location30/11/2018 23:03:1400.2
Books - Categorised30/11/2018 23:05:0601.9
Books - Recent Purchases01/12/2018 13:26:0000
Books - Recent Purchases (Categorised)01/12/2018 13:26:0100
Books-to-Notes Link Pages30/11/2018 23:08:4203.6
Electronic Resources30/11/2018 23:08:4800.1
Notes Links Pages01/12/2018 00:07:40029.7
Paper Citations30/11/2018 23:16:0307.3
Papers30/11/2018 23:17:2401.3
Papers - Blackberry-compatible30/11/2018 23:21:3104.1
Papers - by Sub-Topic30/11/2018 23:22:2300.9
Papers - Categorised30/11/2018 23:25:2703.1
Papers on "Identity"30/11/2018 23:28:0900.3
Papers on "Identity" - by Sub-Topic30/11/2018 23:30:5702.8
Papers on "Identity" - by Sub-Topic - Read30/11/2018 23:27:5102.3
Papers on "Identity" - Read30/11/2018 23:25:3400.1
Papers-to-Notes Link Pages30/11/2018 23:37:2806.5
Precis - by Sub-Topic30/11/2018 23:37:3100.1
WebRefs - Test Pages30/11/2018 23:38:0100.5
Website: Maintenance Dashboard01/12/2018 08:22:0500.1
Website-Generator Documentation01/12/2018 00:09:3501.9
Website-Generator Documentation (Bridge)27/08/2018 10:07:14963.8
   1.22 hours


In the above table, the time the routine takes to create the page in question is given (for my own purposes). All the routines are acceptably quick. "Days Ago" shows how many days prior to the production of this page (which was on 01/12/2018 at 13:47:29) the indicated page was produced.


Lists of Works by Particular Authors


This table lists the collections of Books and Philosophy Papers in my collection, organised by Author:-

Author Letter