Theo Todman's Web Page - Notes Pages

Personal Identity

Brain Transplants

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

Plug Note¹

• Thesis Text:
  1. Brain Transplants, even if currently technically infeasible, are considered to be important Thought Experiments² in the philosophy of Personal Identity. They seem to give the same answer to both the holders of the Psychological Continuity³ View and the Bodily Continuity⁴ View of what ensures the persistence⁵ of the person across time. Both say that the Person⁶ goes where the Brain⁷ goes.
  2. This assumption is the “Transplant Intuition”. However, some animalists⁸ (say they) fail to share this intuition. They (Eric Olson for instance) consider the Brain⁹ to be “just another organ”, albeit a very important one. I find this counter-intuitive¹⁰.
  3. In evaluating these claims it is important to understand just how the Brain¹¹ works, so that we can determine just how fanciful our TEs¹² are. I will discuss this under the Note on the Brain¹³. An assumption I make is that as we are interested in the question What We Are¹⁴, it is important to be empirically accurate.
  4. Note that there are three conceptually distinct versions of the idea of a brain transplant¹⁵.
     1. The first is a Whole Brain Transplant (WBT), though it becomes somewhat arbitrary quite where the brain¹⁶ is supposed to terminate – ie. just how much of the Spinal Cord is included. I include “head transplants” in this category. Note that these might otherwise described as “Body¹⁷ Transplants”. Both descriptions are tendentious and theory-laden.
     2. The second is the Cerebrum¹⁸ Transplant (single or double).
     3. Finally, there’s a “Brain Tissue” transplant, presumably with the intention of transferring particular psychological¹⁹ properties²⁰.
        
  5. It might be objected that the TEs²¹ of WBTs are under-specified. A lot of motor-control is delegated to the non-brain parts of the Central Nervous System (CNS); apart from the brain, the CNS is, mostly, the spinal cord (see "Wikipedia - Central Nervous System"). To ensure motor-control, the brain and the CNS – and even the Peripheral Nervous System (PNS) need to work in tandem. The PNS consists in those elements of the nervous system other than the brain and the spinal cord (see "Wikipedia - Peripheral nervous system"). Yet a transfer of the entire CNS - which includes the spinal cord, let alone the PNS – which includes all the peripheral nerve endings (both sensory and motor) – stretches credulity somewhat.
  6. We need to consider just what the TEs²² are supposed to prove, and just why we sometimes consider WBTs rather than just Cerebrum²³ transfers. I presume the preference for WBTs may stem from the presumed assurance that the seat of consciousness²⁴ is transferred, which might not be the case if only a cerebrum or two are transferred.
  7. It may be we don’t care too much whether the recipient of the transferred brain is fully functional – though if we want assurance that this individual is an animal²⁵, we might want the regulatory functions of the brain²⁶ to remain intact. But whatever brain parts perform these tasks, provided the resultant individual has a full brain, however cobbled together, we might have what we want if the wiring problem can be solved.
  8. A Whole Brain Transplant might better be described as a maximal body transplant, while it is much less clear what’s going on in a Cerebrum²⁷ Transplant. The latter are useful for cases of fission²⁸ (with the added assumption of the idempotency of the two hemispheres), but it’s not fully clear just what psychological²⁹ functions are left behind in this case. Because not all regulatory functions are in the cerebra³⁰, it’s more difficult to argue that the human animal³¹ is transplanted with one or more cerebra³² than it is with a WBT.
  9. I’ve not heard of anyone arguing for animal fission³³ by a fission of the whole brain³⁴, but maybe they have. I suppose the simplest case of Animal Fission would be the separation of Dicephalus³⁵ twins, taken (rather implausibly) to be a single Animal³⁶ with two heads. But this case might better be described as two animals sharing parts, which are then apportioned in the process of achieving separation.

• ---

  Further Remarks
  1. The various variants of Brain Transplants are to be contrasted with:-
     1. BIVs³⁷, where the brain is removed, placed in a vat of nutrients and hooked up to sensory input and motor output; we have a WBT in all but name.
     2. Brain State Transfers³⁸, TEs which – rather fancifully – involve the transfer of information from one brain to another.
     3. Uploading³⁹, in which TE the same information is uploaded to a computer, which is supposed to be able to run a program to process – and indeed ‘experience’ – it.
     4. Cerebral Tissue Transplants⁴⁰: Since this isn’t a TE intended to transfer the person, but simply to transfer “memory⁴¹ traces” and the like, I’ve decided to cover them under Transplants⁴² generally.
     5. Commissurotomy⁴³, where the corpus callosum is cut, allegedly (on some accounts) creating two brains, and two persons, where there had been one.
        

References

• Relevant Works cited above:
  1. "Wikipedia - Central Nervous System", External Link, Read = 33%
  2. "Wikipedia - Peripheral nervous system", External Link, Read = 50%
• For a Page of Links⁴⁴ to this Note, Click here.
• Works on this topic that I’ve actually read⁴⁵, include the following:-
  • General:
    1. "Allen (Becky) - Humans. Dolphins. Crows. Chimps. Bonobos. Robots. Welcome to the Space of Possible Minds", 2016, Footnote₄₆
    2. "Baillie (James) - Problems in Personal Identity: In Conclusion", 1993
    3. "Blatti (Stephan) - Animalism and its Implications", 2005, Annotations, Internal PDF Link
    4. "Blatti (Stephan) - Animalism, Dicephalus, and Borderline Cases", 2007, Annotations, External Link, Internal PDF Link
    5. "Carter (William) - How to Change Your Mind", 1989, Annotations
    6. "Dennett (Daniel) - Where Am I?", 1997, Annotations, External Link, Internal PDF Link
    7. "Garrett (Brian) - Personal Identity", 1998, 2004, Annotations, Internal PDF Link
    8. "Garrett (Brian) - The Problem (of Personal Identity) and Its Place in Philosophy", 1998
    9. "Hershenov (David) - Countering the Appeal of the Psychological Approach to Personal Identity", 2004, Annotations, External Link, Internal PDF Link
    10. "Johnston (Mark) - Human Beings", 1987, Write-Up Note⁴⁷, Annotations, Internal PDF Link
    11. "Liao (S. Matthew) - The Organism View Defended", 2006, Annotations, Internal PDF Link
    12. "Lockwood (Michael) - When Does a Life Begin?", 1987, Annotations
    13. "Mackie (David) - Animalism Versus Lockeanism: No Contest", 1999, Annotations, Internal PDF Link
    14. "Mackie (David) - Going Topless", 1998, Annotations, Internal PDF Link
    15. "Madden (Rory) - Human Persistence", 2016, Internal PDF Link
    16. "Marshall (Richard) & Olson (Eric) - Eric T. Olson: The Philosopher with No Hands", 2014, External Link
    17. "Martin (Alan P.) - Human head transplant: Controversial procedure successfully carried out on corpse", 2017, No Abstract, External Link, Internal PDF Link, Footnote₄₈
    18. "Noonan (Harold) - Animalism versus Lockeanism: Reply to Mackie", 2001, Annotations, Internal PDF Link
    19. "Noonan (Harold) - Identity and Determinacy", 2003, Annotations
    20. "Noonan (Harold) - Persons, Animals and Human Beings", 2003, Annotations
    21. "Olson (Eric) - Animalism and the Remnant-Person Problem", 2015, Internal PDF Link
    22. "Olson (Eric) - Human People Or Human Animals", 1995, Annotations, Internal PDF Link
    23. "Olson (Eric) - Is Psychology Relevant To Personal Identity?", 1994, Annotations, Internal PDF Link
    24. "Olson (Eric) - Persistence", 1999
    25. "Olson (Eric) - Personal Identity and the Radiation Argument", 2001, Annotations, Internal PDF Link
    26. "Olson (Eric) - Psychology and Personal Identity", 1999
    27. "Olson (Eric) - Relativism and Persistence", 1997, Annotations, Internal PDF Link
    28. "Olson (Eric) - What Are We? Brains", 2007, Write-Up Note⁴⁹, Internal PDF Link
    29. "Olson (Eric) - What Are We? Souls", 2007, Write-Up Note⁵⁰, Internal PDF Link
    30. "Olson (Eric) - What Are We? Temporal Parts", 2007, Write-Up Note⁵¹, Internal PDF Link
    31. "Olson (Eric) - Why We Need Not Accept the Psychological Approach", 1999
    32. "Parfit (Derek) - Why Our Identity is Not What Matters", 1986
    33. "Rey (Georges) - Survival", 1976
    34. "Shoemaker (David) - Personal Identity and Immortality", 2009
    35. "Shoemaker (David) - Personal Identity and Self-Regarding Ethics - Alternative Approaches", 2009
    36. "Shoemaker (David) - Personal Identity, Rational Anticipation, and Self-Concern", 2009
    37. "Shoemaker (Sydney) - Persons and Personal Identity", 1996
    38. "Snowdon (Paul) - Personal Identity and Brain Transplants", 1991, Annotations
    39. "Snowdon (Paul) - The Self and Personal Identity", 2009, Write-Up Note⁵²
    40. "Steinhart (Eric) - Persons Versus Brains: Biological Intelligence in Human Organisms", 2001, Annotations
    41. "Thomas (Janice L.) - The bodily criterion", 2000
    42. "Thomas (Janice L.) - What matters for survival and the logical possibility of resurrection", 2000
    43. "Unger (Peter) - A Physically Based Approach To Our Survival", 1992
    44. "Unger (Peter) - The Survival of the Sentient", 2000, Annotations, Internal PDF Link
    45. "Van Inwagen (Peter) - Brain Transplants", 1990, Annotations, No Abstract
    46. "Wiggins (David) - Locke, Butler and the Stream of Consciousness: And Men as Natural Kind", 1976, Internal PDF Link
• A further reading list might start with:-
  • General:
    1. "Canavero (Sergio) - HEAVEN: The head anastomosis venture Project outline for the first human head transplantation with spinal linkage (GEMINI)", 2013, Internal PDF Link, Read = 11%
    2. "Canavero (Sergio) - The “Gemini” spinal cord fusion protocol: Reloaded", 2015, Internal PDF Link, Read = 17%
    3. "Gallois (Andre) - Occasional Identity", 1990, Internal PDF Link, Read = 6%
    4. "Gendler (Tamar Szabo) - Exceptional Persons: On the Limits of Imaginary Cases", 1998, Internal PDF Link
    5. "Guardian Newspaper - First full body transplant is two years away, surgeon claims", 2015, Internal PDF Link, Read = 33%
    6. "Guardian Newspaper - I'll do the first human head transplant", 2015, Internal PDF Link, Read = 11%
    7. "Harrison (Jonathan) - A Philosopher's Nightmare or the Ghost Not Laid", 1967, Internal PDF Link
    8. "Harrison (Jonathan) - How Ludwig Became a Homunculus", 1996, Internal PDF Link
    9. "Johnston (Mark) - Remnant Persons: Animalism's Undoing", 2016, Read = 15%
    10. "Larkin (William S.) - Persons, Animals, and Bodies", 2004, External Link, Internal PDF Link, Read = 17%
    11. "Madden (Rory) - Externalism and Brain Transplants", 2011, Internal PDF Link, Read = 4%
    12. "New Scientist - First human head transplant could happen in two years", 2015, Internal PDF Link, Read = 17%
    13. "Northoff (G.) - Do Brain Tissue Transplants Alter Personal Identity? Inadequacies of Some 'Standard' Arguments", 1996, Internal PDF Link
    14. "Olson (Eric) - Swinburne’s Brain Transplants", 2018, External Link, Internal PDF Link, Read = 22%
    15. "Olson (Eric) - The Remnant-Person Problem", 2016, External Link, Internal PDF Link, Read = 33%
    16. "Puccetti (Roland) - Brain Transplants and Personal Identity", 1969, Internal PDF Link
    17. "Puccetti (Roland) - Mr. Brennan on Person's Brains", 1970, Internal PDF Link
    18. "Puccetti (Roland) - Multiple Identity", 1973
    19. "Puccetti (Roland) - Remembering the Past of Another", 1973, Internal PDF Link
    20. "Shoemaker (David) - The Stony Metaphysical Heart of Animalism", 2016, Internal PDF Link, Read = 24%
    21. "Shoemaker (Sydney) - Persons, Animals, and Identity", 2008, Internal PDF Link, Read = 8%
    22. "Shoemaker (Sydney) - Thinking Animals Without Animalism", 2016, Read = 33%
    23. "Smart (Brian) - Personal Identity in an Organized Parcel", 1973, Internal PDF Link
    24. "Snowdon (Paul) - [P & not-A] Cases: An Introduction", 2014, Read = 44%
    25. "Snowdon (Paul) - Brain Transplants, Animals, and Us", 2014, Read = 13%
    26. "Snowdon (Paul) - Strengthening the Rejection of Transplant Arguments", 2014, Read = 6%
    27. "Wikipedia - Central Nervous System", External Link, Read = 33%
    28. "Wikipedia - Peripheral nervous system", External Link, Read = 50%

  ---

• For a list of Works that have been considered, but have missed the cut for inclusion in this Section of my Thesis, see the following:-
  1. Read: No items to list.
  2. Further Reading: No items to list.
• This is mostly a place-holder⁵³.

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In-Page Footnotes:

Footnote 46:

• While mostly about other matters, this article reminds us that “brains and bodies develop together”, so simply removing a brain and trying to plug it into another body won’t necessarily work, however good we are at the wiring.

Footnote 48:

• There are various papers in the categorised reading list that discuss head transplants.
• These are effectively WBTs; if there’s a difference I should spell this out.
• I’d not included these in the reading list, but now have:-
  → "Canavero (Sergio) - HEAVEN: The head anastomosis venture Project outline for the first human head transplantation with spinal linkage (GEMINI)",
  → "Canavero (Sergio) - The “Gemini” spinal cord fusion protocol: Reloaded",
  → "Guardian Newspaper - First full body transplant is two years away, surgeon claims",
  → "Guardian Newspaper - I'll do the first human head transplant",
  → "New Scientist - First human head transplant could happen in two years".

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Table of the Previous 9 Versions of this Note:

Date	Length	Title
20/09/2022 11:24:00	9531	Brain Transplants
15/05/2022 13:19:12	9041	Brain Transplants
07/02/2021 19:46:34	8722	Brain Transplants
09/09/2020 19:35:02	7559	Brain Transplants
14/05/2018 21:00:00	8970	Brain Transplants
16/03/2018 18:27:22	6738	Brain Transplants
03/02/2018 18:44:38	4447	Brain Transplants
18/08/2009 20:39:50	2577	Brain Transplants
26/11/2007 23:25:26	829	Brain Transplant

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Note last updated	Reading List for this Topic	Parent Topic
06/07/2023 00:43:12	Brain Transplants	Thought Experiments

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Summary of Notes Referenced by This Note

Animalism	Animals	Awaiting Attention (Personal Identity)	Bodily Continuity	Body
Brain	Brain State Transfer	Brains in Vats	Cerebrum	Commissurotomy
Consciousness	Dicephalus	Fission	Human Animals	Intuition
Johnston - Human Beings	Memory	Note Links Explanation	Olson - What Are We? Brains	Olson - What Are We? Souls
Olson - What Are We? Temporal Parts	Person	Plug Note Apologia	Properties	Psychological Continuity
Psychology	Snowdon - The Self and Personal Identity	Thought Experiments	Transplants	Uploading
What are We?	Works Read - Explanation

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

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Summary of Notes Citing This Note

Abbreviations	Aeon Papers - Summary Document: 2017-2018	Androids, 2	Animalism - Objections	Brain, 2, 3
Brain Criterion	Brain State Transfer, 2, 3	Causality	Cerebrum, 2	Chimera
Counting Persons	Death	Explanation	Fission	Fusion
Human Beings	Hybrid Theories	Intuition	Johnston - Human Beings, 2	Noonan - Persons and Bodies - Response
Olson	Olson - What Are We? Animals, 2, 3	Olson - What Are We? The Question	Organisms	PID Note, Book & Paper Usage, 2, 3, 4, 5
Reduplication Objections	Relative Identity	Snowdon - The Self and Personal Identity	Thesis - Chapter 01 (Introduction)	Thesis - Chapter 02 (What are We?), 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
Thesis - Chapter 03 (What is a Person?)	Thesis - Chapter 04 (Basic Metaphysical Issues), 2	Thesis - Chapter 05 (Persistence and Time)	Thesis - Chapter 06 (Animalism and Arguments for It), 2	Thesis - Chapter 08 (Arguments against Animalism)
Thesis - Chapter 10 (Thought Experiments), 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13	Thesis - Chapter 11 (Resurrection)	Thesis - Current Stance	Thesis - Personal Identity, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23	Transplants, 2
Website Generator Documentation - Functors, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

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

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Authors, Books & Papers Citing this Note

Author	Title	Medium	Extra Links	Read?
Aeon	Video - Can you transplant a head to another body?	Paper		Yes
Allen (Becky)	Humans. Dolphins. Crows. Chimps. Bonobos. Robots. Welcome to the Space of Possible Minds	Paper		Yes
Ayers (Michael R.)	Locke on Living Things	Paper		Yes
Bailey (Andrew M.)	The Elimination Argument	Paper
Baillie (James)	Problems in Personal Identity: In Conclusion	Paper	2	Yes
Baker (Deane-Peter)	Taylor and Parfit on Personal Identity: a Response to Lotter	Paper		Yes
Ball (Philip)	How to Grow a Human: Reprogramming Cells and Redesigning Life	Book		Yes
Berglund (Stefan)	Human and Personal Identity	Book
Blatti (Stephan)	Animalism and its Implications	Paper		Yes
Blatti (Stephan)	Animalism, Dicephalus, and Borderline Cases	Paper		Yes
Borowski (E.J.)	Identity and Personal Identity	Paper
Brennan (Andrew)	Persons and their Brains	Paper
Claxton (Guy)	Intelligence in the Flesh: Why Your Mind Needs Your Body Much More Than it Thinks	Book	2, 3
DeGrazia (David)	Human Persons: Numerical Identity and Essence	Paper
Dennett (Daniel)	Where Am I?	Paper	2, 3, 4, 5	Yes
Ehring (Douglas)	Personal Identity and Time Travel	Paper		Yes
Gallois (Andre)	Occasional Identity	Paper	2, 3, 4
Garrett (Brian)	Personal Identity	Paper		Yes
Garrett (Brian)	The Problem (of Personal Identity) and Its Place in Philosophy	Paper		Yes
Gendler (Tamar Szabo)	Exceptional Persons: On the Limits of Imaginary Cases	Paper	2
Godfrey-Smith (Peter)	Other Minds: The Octopus and the Evolution of Intelligent Life	Book		Yes
Graham (Gordon)	Review of David Cockburn's 'Human Beings'	Paper
Guardian Newspaper	First full body transplant is two years away, surgeon claims	Paper	2
Guardian Newspaper	I'll do the first human head transplant	Paper
Harris (Henry)	An Experimentalist Looks at Identity	Paper
Hershenov (David)	A Hylomorphic Account of Thought Experiments Concerning Personal Identity	Paper
Hershenov (David)	Countering the Appeal of the Psychological Approach to Personal Identity	Paper	2, 3	Yes
Hershenov (David)	Problems with a Constitution Account of Persons	Paper
Johansson (Jens)	Animal Ethics	Paper	2
Johnston (Mark)	Human Beings	Paper	2	Yes
Johnston (Mark)	Remnant Persons: Animalism's Undoing	Paper	2, 3, 4, 5, 6
Kingma (Elselijn)	Were You Part of Your Mother?	Paper		Yes
Larkin (William S.)	Persons, Animals, and Bodies	Paper	2
Lawrance (John)	Hosting Andrew	Book		Yes
Liao (S. Matthew)	The Organism View Defended	Paper	2, 3, 4, 5, 6	Yes
Lockwood (Michael)	When Does a Life Begin?	Paper	2	Yes
Lowe (E.J.)	On the Identity of Artifacts	Paper
Mackie (David)	Animalism Versus Lockeanism: No Contest	Paper		Yes
Madden (Rory)	Externalism and Brain Transplants	Paper
Madden (Rory)	Human Persistence	Paper		Yes
Madden (Rory)	The Persistence of Animate Organisms	Paper
Marshall (Richard) & Olson (Eric)	Eric T. Olson: The Philosopher with No Hands	Paper	2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10	Yes
Matthews (Gareth B.)	Surviving As	Paper
Monti (Alessandro)	A stable sense of self is rooted in the lungs, heart and gut	Paper		Yes
New Scientist	First human head transplant could happen in two years	Paper	2
Noonan (Harold)	Animalism versus Lockeanism: Reply to Mackie	Paper		Yes
Noonan (Harold)	Arguments Against Animalism: Comments on L.R.Baker 'Persons & Bodies'	Paper		Yes
Noonan (Harold)	Identity and Determinacy	Paper		Yes
Noonan (Harold)	Persons, Animals and Human Beings	Paper	2	Yes
Noonan (Harold)	The Possibility of Reincarnation	Paper
Olson (Eric)	Animalism and the Remnant-Person Problem	Paper	2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12	Yes
Olson (Eric)	Human People Or Human Animals	Paper	2, 3, 4	Yes
Olson (Eric)	Is Psychology Relevant To Personal Identity?	Paper	2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8	Yes
Olson (Eric)	Persistence	Paper	2, 3, 4, 5, 6	Yes
Olson (Eric)	Personal Identity and the Radiation Argument	Paper	2	Yes
Olson (Eric)	Psychology and Personal Identity	Paper	2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30	Yes
Olson (Eric)	Relativism and Persistence	Paper		Yes
Olson (Eric)	Review of P. Snowdon, Persons, Animals, Ourselves	Paper	2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7	Yes
Olson (Eric)	Review of Tye's 'Consciousness and Persons - Unity and Identity'	Paper
Olson (Eric)	The Human Animal: Introduction	Paper		Yes
Olson (Eric)	The Remnant-Person Problem	Paper	2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
Olson (Eric)	What Are We? Animals	Paper	2, 3	Yes
Olson (Eric)	What Are We? The Question	Paper		Yes
Olson (Eric)	Why We Need Not Accept the Psychological Approach	Paper	2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21	Yes
Parfit (Derek)	We Are Not Human Beings	Paper
Parfit (Derek)	Why Our Identity is Not What Matters	Paper		Yes
Perry (John)	A Dialogue on Personal Identity and Immortality	Book	2	Yes
Persson (Ingmar)	Our Identity and the Separability of Person and Organism	Paper	2
Petrus (Klaus), Ed.	On Human Persons	Book	2, 3, 4
Pizzi (Claudio) & Williamson (Timothy)	Conditional Excluded Middle in Systems of Consequential Implication	Paper	2
Puccetti (Roland)	Borowski on the Relative Identity of Persons	Paper
Puccetti (Roland)	Brain Transplants and Personal Identity	Paper	2
Puccetti (Roland)	Mr. Brennan on Person's Brains	Paper	2, 3
Puccetti (Roland)	Multiple Identity	Paper
Puccetti (Roland)	Remembering the Past of Another	Paper
Puccetti (Roland)	The Conquest of Death	Paper
Reid (Mark D.)	A Case in Which Two Persons Exist in One Animal	Paper	2
Rey (Georges)	Survival	Paper		Yes
Rosenberg (Jay)	Bodies and Souls III - The Limits of Imagination, Oneself	Paper
Schechtman (Marya)	Empathic Access: The Missing Ingredient in Personal Identity	Paper
Seibt (Johanna)	Fission, Sameness, and Survival: Parfit’s Branch Line Argument Revisited	Paper
Shoemaker (David)	Personal Identity and Immortality	Paper	2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7	Yes
Shoemaker (David)	Personal Identity and Self-Regarding Ethics - Alternative Approaches	Paper	2, 3	Yes
Shoemaker (David)	Personal Identity, Rational Anticipation, and Self-Concern	Paper	2, 3, 4, 5, 6	Yes
Shoemaker (David)	The Stony Metaphysical Heart of Animalism	Paper	2, 3
Shoemaker (Sydney)	Persons and Personal Identity	Paper	2, 3, 4	Yes
Shoemaker (Sydney)	Persons, Animals, and Identity	Paper	2
Shoemaker (Sydney)	Thinking Animals Without Animalism	Paper	2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
Smart (Brian)	Personal Identity in an Organized Parcel	Paper
Snowdon (Paul)	[P & not-A] Cases: An Introduction	Paper	2
Snowdon (Paul)	Brain Transplants, Animals, and Us	Paper	2, 3, 4
Snowdon (Paul)	Personal Identity (Lectures 1 - 4)	Paper		Yes
Snowdon (Paul)	Personal Identity and Brain Transplants	Paper	2	Yes
Snowdon (Paul)	Strengthening the Rejection of Transplant Arguments	Paper	2
Snowdon (Paul)	The Self and Personal Identity	Paper		Yes
Steinhart (Eric)	Persons Versus Brains: Biological Intelligence in Human Organisms	Paper		Yes
Thomas (Janice L.)	Descartes' arguments for dualism	Paper	2	Yes
Thomas (Janice L.)	The bodily criterion	Paper	2, 3	Yes
Thomas (Janice L.)	What matters for survival and the logical possibility of resurrection	Paper	2	Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Abbreviations	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Androids	Paper	2	Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Animalism - Objections	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Brain	Paper	2, 3	Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Brain Criterion	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Brain State Transfer	Paper	2, 3	Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Causality	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Cerebrum	Paper	2	Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Chapter 01 (Introduction)	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Chapter 02 (What Are We?)	Paper	2, 3, 4, 5, 6	Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Chapter 03 (What is a Person?)	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Chapter 04 (Basic Metaphysical Issues)	Paper	2	Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Chapter 05 (Persistence and Time)	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Chapter 06 (Animalism and Arguments for It)	Paper	2	Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Chapter 08 (Arguments against Animalism)	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Chapter 10 (Thought Experiments)	Paper	2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13	Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Chapter 11 (Resurrection)	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Chimera	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Counting Persons	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Current Position	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Death	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Explanation	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Fission	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Fusion	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Human Beings	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Hybrid Theories	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Intuition	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Olson	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Organisms	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Personal Identity	Paper	2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Reduplication Objections	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Relative Identity	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Transplants	Paper	2	Yes
Unger (Peter)	The Survival of the Sentient	Paper		Yes
Van Inwagen (Peter)	Dualism and Materialism: Athens and Jerusalem?	Paper		Yes
Van Inwagen (Peter)	Material Beings	Book
Van Inwagen (Peter)	Materialism and the Psychological-continuity Account of Personal Identity	Paper		Yes
Van Inwagen (Peter)	Précis of Material Beings	Paper		Yes
Vesey (Godfrey N.A.)	Personal Identity: A Philosophical Analysis	Book
Wiggins (David)	Locke, Butler and the Stream of Consciousness: And Men as Natural Kind	Paper		Yes
Wiggins (David)	Reply To Shoemaker	Paper
Wilkes (Kathleen)	Multiple Personality and Personal Identity	Paper
Wilson (Jack)	Beyond Horses and Oak Trees: A New Theory of Individuation for Living Entities	Paper		Yes

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References & Reading List

Author	Title	Medium	Source	Read?
Aeon	Video - Can you transplant a head to another body?	Paper - Referencing	Aeon, 11 December 2024	Yes
Allen (Becky)	Humans. Dolphins. Crows. Chimps. Bonobos. Robots. Welcome to the Space of Possible Minds	Paper - Cited	CAM (Cambridge Alumni Magazine), Issue 79, Michaelmas Term 2016	Yes
Allen (Becky)	Humans. Dolphins. Crows. Chimps. Bonobos. Robots. Welcome to the Space of Possible Minds	Paper - Referencing	CAM (Cambridge Alumni Magazine), Issue 79, Michaelmas Term 2016	Yes
Ayers (Michael R.)	Locke (Vol 2 - Ontology)	Book - Referencing (via Paper Referencing)	Bibliographical details to be supplied	26%
Ayers (Michael R.)	Locke on Living Things	Paper - Referencing	Ayers - Locke (Vol. 2 - Ontology), 1991, Chapter 19, pp. 216-228	Yes
Bailey (Andrew M.)	The Elimination Argument	Paper - Referencing	Philosophical Studies 168 (2014): 475-482	56%
Baillie (James)	Problems in Personal Identity	Book - Cited (via Paper Cited)	Bibliographical details to be supplied	45%
Baillie (James)	Problems in Personal Identity: In Conclusion	Paper - Cited	Baillie (James) - Problems in Personal Identity, 1993, Conclusion	Yes
Baker (Deane-Peter)	Taylor and Parfit on Personal Identity: a Response to Lotter	Paper - By Subtopic	South African Journal of Philosophy, Aug99, Vol. 18 Issue 3, p331, 16p	Yes
Bambrough (Renford), Ed.	Philosophy - 67/262 (October 1992)	Book - By Subtopic (via Paper By Subtopic)	Bambrough (Renford), Ed. - Philosophy - 67/262 (October 1992)	No
Blatti (Stephan)	Animalism and its Implications	Paper - Cited	OU Website (now deleted)	Yes
Blatti (Stephan)	Animalism, Dicephalus, and Borderline Cases	Paper - Cited	Philosophical Psychology 20 (2007): 595–608	Yes
Blatti (Stephan) & Snowdon (Paul), Eds.	Animalism: New Essays on Persons, Animals, and Identity	Book - Referencing (via Paper Referencing)	Bibliographical details to be supplied	22%
Borowski (E.J.)	Identity and Personal Identity	Paper - By Subtopic	Mind, 1976, 481-502	6%
Cambridge	CAM (Cambridge Alumni Magazine)	Book - Cited (via Paper Cited)	Bibliographical details to be supplied	11%
Cambridge	CAM (Cambridge Alumni Magazine)	Book - Referencing (via Paper Referencing)	Bibliographical details to be supplied	11%
Canavero (Sergio)	HEAVEN: The head anastomosis venture Project outline for the first human head transplantation with spinal linkage (GEMINI)	Paper - Cited	Surgical Neurology International, June 13, 2013	11%
Canavero (Sergio)	The “Gemini” spinal cord fusion protocol: Reloaded	Paper - Cited	Surgical Neurology International, February 3, 2015	17%
Carter (William)	How to Change Your Mind	Paper - Cited	Canadian Journal of Philosophy, Vol. 19, No. 1, March 1989, pp. 1-14	Yes
Cockburn (David), Ed.	Human Beings	Book - By Subtopic (via Paper By Subtopic)	Cockburn (David), Ed. - Human Beings	7%
Dennett (Daniel)	Brainstorms - Philosophical Essays on Mind and Psychology	Book - Cited (via Paper Cited)	Bibliographical details to be supplied	43%
Dennett (Daniel)	Brainstorms - Philosophical Essays on Mind and Psychology	Book - Referencing (via Paper Referencing)	Bibliographical details to be supplied	43%
Dennett (Daniel)	Where Am I?	Paper - Cited	Dennett - Brainstorms - Philosophical Essays on Mind and Psychology, Chapter 17, 1978	Yes
Dennett (Daniel)	Where Am I?	Paper - Referencing	Dennett - Brainstorms - Philosophical Essays on Mind and Psychology, Chapter 17, 1978	Yes
Ehring (Douglas)	Personal Identity and Time Travel	Paper - Referencing	Philosophical Studies, Vol. 52, No. 3 (Nov., 1987), pp. 427-433	Yes
Garrett (Brian)	Personal Identity	Paper - Cited	Routledge Encyclopaedia of Philosophy. London: Routledge. Garrett, Brian (1998, 2004). Personal identity. Retrieved December 22, 2005	Yes
Garrett (Brian)	Personal Identity and Self-consciousness	Book - Cited (via Paper Cited)	Bibliographical details to be supplied	Yes
Garrett (Brian)	The Problem (of Personal Identity) and Its Place in Philosophy	Paper - Cited	Garrett - Personal Identity and Self-consciousness, 1998, Chapter 1	Yes
Graham (Gordon)	Review of David Cockburn's 'Human Beings'	Paper - By Subtopic	Philosophy - 67/262 (October 1992)	No
Guardian Newspaper	First full body transplant is two years away, surgeon claims	Paper - Cited	Guardian Newspaper (Ian Sample), 25/02/15	No
Guardian Newspaper	I'll do the first human head transplant	Paper - Cited	Guardian Newspaper (Tom Lamont), 03/10/15	11%
Harrison (Jonathan)	A Philosopher's Nightmare or the Ghost Not Laid	Paper - By Subtopic	Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, New Series, Vol. 67 (1966 - 1967), pp. 179-188	No
Harrison (Jonathan)	How Ludwig Became a Homunculus	Paper - By Subtopic	Philosophy, Vol. 71, No. 277 (Jul., 1996), pp. 439-444	No
Hershenov (David)	Countering the Appeal of the Psychological Approach to Personal Identity	Paper - Cited	Philosophy - 79, Jul2004, Issue 309, p447-474, 28p;	Yes
Johnston (Mark)	Human Beings	Paper - Cited	Journal of Philosophy, Volume 84, Issue 2 (Feb 1987), 59-83	Yes
Johnston (Mark)	Human Beings	Paper - Referencing	Journal of Philosophy, Volume 84, Issue 2 (Feb 1987), 59-83	Yes
Johnston (Mark)	Remnant Persons: Animalism's Undoing	Paper - Referencing	Blatti & Snowdon - Animalism: New Essays on Persons, Animals, and Identity, 2016: Part I, Chapter 5, pp. 89-127	15%
Kingma (Elselijn)	Were You Part of Your Mother?	Paper - Referencing	Mind, Volume 128, Issue 511, July 2019, Pages 609–646	Yes
Liao (S. Matthew)	The Organism View Defended	Paper - Cited	The Monist, Vol. 89, No. 3, Coming into Being and Passing Away (July 2006), pp. 334-350	Yes
Liao (S. Matthew)	The Organism View Defended	Paper - Referencing	The Monist, Vol. 89, No. 3, Coming into Being and Passing Away (July 2006), pp. 334-350	Yes
Mackie (David)	Going Topless	Paper - By Subtopic	Ratio 11.2, Sep1998, p125, 16p	Yes
Madden (Rory)	Externalism and Brain Transplants	Paper - By Subtopic	Oxford Studies in Metaphysics, Vol 6, eds. K. Bennett and D. Zimmerman, OUP 2011	4%
Marshall (Richard)	Philosophy at 3:AM: Questions and Answers with 25 Top Philosophers	Book - Referencing (via Paper Referencing)	Bibliographical details to be supplied	37%
Marshall (Richard) & Olson (Eric)	Eric T. Olson: The Philosopher with No Hands	Paper - Referencing	Marshall (Richard) - Philosophy at 3:AM: Questions and Answers with 25 Top Philosophers	Yes
Martin (Alan P.)	Human head transplant: Controversial procedure successfully carried out on corpse	Paper - By Subtopic	alphr; 17th November 2017	Yes
Monti (Alessandro)	A stable sense of self is rooted in the lungs, heart and gut	Paper - Referencing	Aeon, 06 December 2021	Yes
New Scientist	First human head transplant could happen in two years	Paper - Cited	New Scientist (Helen Thomson), 25/02/15	17%
Noonan (Harold)	Animalism versus Lockeanism: Reply to Mackie	Paper - Cited	Philosophical Quarterly, 2001, Vol. 51 Issue 202, p83, 8p	Yes
Noonan (Harold)	Identity and Determinacy	Paper - Cited	Noonan - Personal Identity, 2003, Chapter 6	Yes
Noonan (Harold)	Personal Identity	Book - Cited (via Paper Cited)	Bibliographical details to be supplied	Yes
Northoff (G.)	Do Brain Tissue Transplants Alter Personal Identity? Inadequacies of Some 'Standard' Arguments	Paper - By Subtopic	Journal of Medical Ethics, Vol. 22, No. 3 (Jun., 1996) (pp. 174-180)	No
O'Hear (Anthony), Ed.	Philosophy - 71/277 (July 1996)	Book - By Subtopic (via Paper By Subtopic)	O'Hear (Anthony), Ed. - Philosophy - 71/277 (July 1996)	No
O'Hear (Anthony), Ed.	Philosophy - 79/309 (July 2004)	Book - Cited (via Paper Cited)	Bibliographical details to be supplied	24%
Olson (Eric)	Animalism and the Remnant-Person Problem	Paper - By Subtopic	J. Fonseca and J. Gonçalves, eds., Philosophical Perspectives on the Self, Peter Lang 2015: 21-40	Yes
Olson (Eric)	Human People Or Human Animals	Paper - Referencing	Philosophical Studies 80:159-181, 1995	Yes
Olson (Eric)	Is Psychology Relevant To Personal Identity?	Paper - Referencing	Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 72, Number 2, June 1994, pp. 173-186(14).	Yes
Olson (Eric)	Papers on Identity Boxes: Vol 13 (Olson)	Book - By Subtopic (via Paper By Subtopic)	Olson (Eric) - Papers on Identity Boxes: Vol 13 (Olson)	16%
Olson (Eric)	Papers on Identity Boxes: Vol 13 (Olson)	Book - Referencing (via Paper Referencing)	Bibliographical details to be supplied	16%
Olson (Eric)	Persistence	Paper - Referencing	The Human Animal, September 1999, Chapter 2, pp. 22-41	Yes
Olson (Eric)	Psychology and Personal Identity	Paper - Referencing	The Human Animal, September 1999, Chapter 1, pp. 7-21	Yes
Olson (Eric)	Swinburne’s Brain Transplants	Paper - By Subtopic	Philosophia Christi, Volume 20, Issue 1, 2018; Symposium on Dualism and Physicalism	22%
Olson (Eric)	The Human Animal - Personal Identity Without Psychology	Book - Referencing (via Paper Referencing)	Bibliographical details to be supplied	Yes
Olson (Eric)	The Human Animal: Introduction	Paper - Referencing	The Human Animal, September 1999, Introduction, pp. 3-7	Yes
Olson (Eric)	The Remnant-Person Problem	Paper - Referencing	Blatti & Snowdon - Animalism: New Essays on Persons, Animals, and Identity, 2016: Part II, Chapter 7, pp. 145-161	33%
Olson (Eric)	What are We? A Study of Personal Ontology	Book - Referencing (via Paper Referencing)	Bibliographical details to be supplied	Yes
Olson (Eric)	What Are We? Animals	Paper - Referencing	What Are We? A Study in Personal Ontology, Chapter 2 (November 2007: Oxford University Press.)	Yes
Olson (Eric)	What Are We? The Question	Paper - Referencing	What Are We? A Study in Personal Ontology, Chapter 1 (November 2007: Oxford University Press.)	Yes
Olson (Eric)	Why We Need Not Accept the Psychological Approach	Paper - Referencing	The Human Animal, September 1999, Chapter 3, pp. 42-72	Yes
Puccetti (Roland)	Brain Transplants and Personal Identity	Paper - By Subtopic	Analysis 29.3, 1969, pp. 65-77	No
Puccetti (Roland)	Mr. Brennan on Person's Brains	Paper - By Subtopic	Analysis 31.1, 1970, pp. 30-32	No
Puccetti (Roland)	Remembering the Past of Another	Paper - By Subtopic	Canadian Journal of Philosophy, 2 (4), June 1973: 523-532.	No
Reid (Mark D.)	A Case in Which Two Persons Exist in One Animal	Paper - Referencing	Blatti & Snowdon - Animalism: New Essays on Persons, Animals, and Identity, 2016: Part III, Chapter 12, pp. 253-265	42%
Rorty (Amélie Oksenberg), Ed.	The Identities of Persons	Book - By Subtopic (via Paper By Subtopic)	Rorty (Amélie Oksenberg), Ed. - The Identities of Persons	23%
Shoemaker (David)	Personal Identity and Ethics: A Brief Introduction	Book - By Subtopic (via Paper By Subtopic)	Shoemaker (David) - Personal Identity and Ethics: A Brief Introduction	Yes
Shoemaker (David)	Personal Identity and Ethics: A Brief Introduction	Book - Referencing (via Paper Referencing)	Bibliographical details to be supplied	Yes
Shoemaker (David)	Personal Identity and Self-Regarding Ethics - Alternative Approaches	Paper - By Subtopic	Shoemaker (David) - Personal Identity and Ethics: A Brief Introduction, 2009, Chapter 3	Yes
Shoemaker (David)	Personal Identity, Rational Anticipation, and Self-Concern	Paper - Referencing	Shoemaker (David) - Personal Identity and Ethics: A Brief Introduction, 2009, Chapter 2	Yes
Skrzypek (Jeremy) & Mangino (Dominic R.)	Should Animalists Be 'Transplanimalists'?	Paper - By Subtopic	Axiomathes, Vol. 31, No. 1 (Feb., 2021): pp. 105-124.	6%
Smart (Brian)	Personal Identity in an Organized Parcel	Paper - By Subtopic	Philosophical Studies: Vol. 24, No. 6 (Nov., 1973), pp. 420-423	No
Snowdon (Paul)	Brain Transplants, Animals, and Us	Paper - By Subtopic	Snowdon (Paul) - Persons, Animals, Ourselves - Chapter 10	13%
Snowdon (Paul)	Personal Identity and Brain Transplants	Paper - By Subtopic	Cockburn - Human Beings, 1991	Yes
Snowdon (Paul)	Persons, Animals, Ourselves	Book - By Subtopic (via Paper By Subtopic)	Snowdon (Paul) - Persons, Animals, Ourselves	21%
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Brain	Paper - Referencing		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Brain Transplants	Paper - By Subtopic		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Chapter 02 (What Are We?)	Paper - Referencing		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Chapter 04 (Basic Metaphysical Issues)	Paper - Referencing		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Chapter 11 (Resurrection)	Paper - Referencing		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Death	Paper - Referencing		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Personal Identity	Paper - Referencing		34%
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Relative Identity	Paper - Referencing		Yes
Van Inwagen (Peter)	Brain Transplants	Paper - By Subtopic	Van Inwagen - Material Beings; 1990; Ch. 15	Yes
Van Inwagen (Peter)	Dualism and Materialism: Athens and Jerusalem?	Paper - Referencing	Faith and Philosophy 12: 475-88, 1995	Yes
Van Inwagen (Peter)	Material Beings	Book - By Subtopic (via Paper By Subtopic)	Van Inwagen (Peter) - Material Beings	27%
Van Inwagen (Peter)	Materialism and the Psychological-continuity Account of Personal Identity	Paper - Referencing	Van Inwagen - Ontology, Identity and Modality, Part II: Identity, Chapter 9, 1997	Yes
Van Inwagen (Peter)	Ontology, Identity and Modality: Essays in metaphysics	Book - Referencing (via Paper Referencing)	Bibliographical details to be supplied	17%
Wiggins (David)	Locke, Butler and the Stream of Consciousness: And Men as Natural Kind	Paper - By Subtopic	Philosophy, Vol. 51, No. 196 (Apr., 1976), pp. 131-158	Yes
Wiggins (David)	Reply To Shoemaker	Paper - Referencing	Monist, Oct2004, Vol. 87 Issue 4, p594-609, 16p;	No
Wikipedia	Central Nervous System	Paper - Cited	Wikipedia, taken 28th February 2023	No
Wikipedia	Peripheral nervous system	Paper - Cited	Wikipedia, taken 28th February 2023	No
Wilson (Jack)	Beyond Horses and Oak Trees: A New Theory of Individuation for Living Entities	Paper - Referencing	Wilson, Jack - Biological Individuality: The identity and Persistence of Living Entities; 1999, Chap. 1, pp. 1-21	Yes
Wilson (Jack)	Biological Individuality - The identity and Persistence of Living Entities	Book - Referencing (via Paper Referencing)	Bibliographical details to be supplied	Yes
Zimmerman (Dean) & Gendler (Tamar Szabo), Eds.	Monist Special Issue: Personal Identity	Book - Referencing (via Paper Referencing)	Bibliographical details to be supplied	2%

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Text Colour Conventions

1. Blue: Text by me; © Theo Todman, 2025

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