Ideas of Derek Parfit, by Theme

[British, 1942 - 2017, Fellow of All Soul's College, Oxford.]

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2. Reason / E. Argument / 7. Thought Experiments

5515	Imaginary cases are good for revealing our beliefs, rather than the truth

7. Existence / C. Structure of Existence / 2. Reduction

5516	Reduction can be by identity, or constitution, or elimination [PG]

16. Persons / B. Nature of the Self / 5. Self as Associations

3539	Personal identity is just causally related mental states [Maslin]

16. Persons / D. Continuity of the Self / 1. Identity and the Self

5514	Psychologists are interested in identity as a type of person, but philosophers study numerical identity

16. Persons / D. Continuity of the Self / 2. Mental Continuity / b. Self as mental continuity

1393	One of my future selves will not necessarily be me

5521	If my brain-halves are transplanted into two bodies, I have continuity, and don't need identity

5522	Over a period of time what matters is not that 'I' persist, but that I have psychological continuity

16. Persons / D. Continuity of the Self / 4. Split Consciousness

1392	If we split like amoeba, we would be two people, neither of them being us

5519	It is fine to save two dying twins by merging parts of their bodies into one, and identity is irrelevant

5520	If two humans are merged surgically, the new identity is a purely verbal problem

16. Persons / D. Continuity of the Self / 5. Concerns of the Self

1391	Concern for our own lives isn't the source of belief in identity, it is the result of it

16. Persons / E. Rejecting the Self / 4. Denial of the Self

5518	It doesn't matter whether I exist with half my components replaced (any more than an audio system)

23. Ethics / E. Utilitarianism / 1. Utilitarianism

9762	We should focus less on subjects of experience, and more on the experiences themselves