The Persistence Of Persons

Author : Valerio Buonomo (Ed.)
Publisher : BoD – Books on Demand
Page : 312 pages
File Size : 43,7 Mb
Release : 2022-09-06
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9783868385892

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The Persistence of Persons by Valerio Buonomo (Ed.) Pdf

We ordinarily believe that the inhabitants of the world – including ourselves – persist over time. Such an idea, however, has puzzled philosophers for centuries. How can we change and still be the same? More specifically, is there any constitutive condition of our identity over time? And if so, does this condition involve mental aspects (such as memories, believes, experiences, etc.), physical aspects (such as the body, or the continuity of the organism), or something else? Or is rather personal identity primitive and unanalyzable, so that our persistence is nothing but a brute fact? This volume is a collection of new essays from leading figures in the field analyzing the persistence of persons and the criteria of personal identity over time. It presents an extensive discussion of the most relevant views on personal identity in contemporary metaphysics and provides new treatments of the constitutive conditions of personal persistence.

Author : Marya Schechtman
Publisher : OUP Oxford
Page : 224 pages
File Size : 47,5 Mb
Release : 2014-03-14
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9780191507786

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Staying Alive by Marya Schechtman Pdf

Judgments of personal identity stand at the heart of our daily transactions. Family life, friendships, institutions of justice, and systems of compensation all rely on our ability to reidentify people. It is not as obvious as it might at first appear just how to express this relation between facts about personal identity and practical interests in a philosophical account of personal identity. A natural thought is that whatever relation is proposed as the one which constitutes the sameness of a person must be important to us in just the way identity is. This simple understanding of the connection between personal identity and practical concerns has serious difficulties, however. One is that the relations that underlie our practical judgments do not seem suited to providing a metaphysical account of the basic, literal continuation of an entity. Another is that the practical interests we associate with identity are many and varied and it seems impossible that a single relation could simultaneously capture what is necessary and sufficient for all of them. Staying Alive offers a new way of thinking about the relation between personal identity and practical interests which allows us to overcome these difficulties and to offer a view in which the most basic and literal facts about personal identity are inherently connected to practical concerns. This account, the 'Person Life View', sees persons as unified loci of practical interaction, and defines the identity of a person in terms of the unity of a characteristic kind of life made up of dynamic interactions among biological, psychological, and social attributes and functions mediated through social and cultural infrastructure.

Author : Paul F. Snowdon
Publisher : OUP Oxford
Page : 272 pages
File Size : 48,6 Mb
Release : 2014-10-09
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9780191056802

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Persons, Animals, Ourselves by Paul F. Snowdon Pdf

The starting point for this book is a particular answer to a question that grips many of us: what kind of thing are we? The particular answer is that we are animals (of a certain sort)—a view nowadays called 'animalism'. This answer will appear obvious to many but on the whole philosophers have rejected it. Paul F. Snowdon proposes, contrary to that attitude, that there are strong reasons to believe animalism and that when properly analysed the objections against it that philosophers have given are not convincing. One way to put the idea is that we should not think of ourselves as things that need psychological states or capacities to exist, any more that other animals do. The initial chapters analyse the content and general philosophical implications of animalism—including the so-called problem of personal identity, and that of the unity of consciousness—and they provide a framework which categorises the standard philosophical objections. Snowdon then argues that animalism is consistent with a perfectly plausible account of the central notion of a 'person', and he criticises the accounts offered by John Locke and by David Wiggins of that notion. In the two next chapters Snowdon argues that there are very strong reasons to think animalism is true, and proposes some central claims about animal which are relevant to the argument. In the rest of the book the task is to formulate and to persuade the reader of the lack of cogency of the standard philosophical objections, including the conviction that it is possible for the animal that I would be if animalism were true to continue in existence after I have ceased to exist, and the argument that it is possible for us to remain in existence even when the animal has ceased to exist. In considering these types of objections the views of various philosophers, including Nagel, Shoemaker, Johnston, Wilkes, and Olson, are also explored. Snowdon concludes that animalism represents a highly commonsensical and defensible way of thinking about ourselves, and that its rejection by philosophers rests on the tendency when doing philosophy to mistake fantasy for reality.

Author : Barry Dainton
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 461 pages
File Size : 49,6 Mb
Release : 2008-03-13
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9780199288847

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The Phenomenal Self by Barry Dainton Pdf

Phenomenal continuity seems to provide a more reliable guide to our persistence than any other form of continuity. The Phenomenal Self is a full-scale defence and elaboration of this premise."--BOOK JACKET.

Author : Garth L. Mangum,Stephen L. Mangum,Andrew M. Sum
Publisher : JHU Press
Page : 154 pages
File Size : 44,6 Mb
Release : 2003
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 0801871301

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The Persistence of Poverty in the United States by Garth L. Mangum,Stephen L. Mangum,Andrew M. Sum Pdf

For more than thirty years, students, scholars, and policymakers have relied on successive editions of Sar A. Levitan's Programs in Aid of the Poor. Now, in conjunction with the eighth edition of that classic work, coauthors Garth Mangum, Stephen Mangum, and Andrew Sum offer a brief but comprehensive overview of the facts of poverty in the United States, its underlying causes, and the reasons for its persistence in the richest nation in the world. Providing a wealth of data and cogent analysis, this book can be used along with Programs for additional background, or can stand on its own. "This volume demonstrates more starkly than its parent the persistence of poverty in this nation. Though some individuals and families manage to escape it, the phenomenon diminishes not at all—or at least very little . . . Having been sobered by this thought, the student may ponder what more might conceivably be done to reduce the incidence of that endemic economic and social disease."—from the Preface

Author : Galen Strawson
Publisher : Princeton University Press
Page : 279 pages
File Size : 51,8 Mb
Release : 2014-07-21
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9780691161006

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Locke on Personal Identity by Galen Strawson Pdf

John Locke's theory of personal identity underlies all modern discussion of the nature of persons and selves—yet it is widely thought to be wrong. In this book, Galen Strawson argues that in fact it is Locke’s critics who are wrong, and that the famous objections to his theory are invalid. Indeed, far from refuting Locke, they illustrate his fundamental point. Strawson argues that the root error is to take Locke’s use of the word "person" as merely a term for a standard persisting thing, like "human being." In actuality, Locke uses "person" primarily as a forensic or legal term geared specifically to questions about praise and blame, punishment and reward. This point is familiar to some philosophers, but its full consequences have not been worked out, partly because of a further error about what Locke means by the word "conscious." When Locke claims that your personal identity is a matter of the actions that you are conscious of, he means the actions that you experience as your own in some fundamental and immediate manner. Clearly and vigorously argued, this is an important contribution both to the history of philosophy and to the contemporary philosophy of personal identity.

Author : Richard Eldridge
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 268 pages
File Size : 51,7 Mb
Release : 2001-02-05
Category : Literary Criticism
ISBN : 0521804817

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The Persistence of Romanticism by Richard Eldridge Pdf

This volume, first published in 2001, argues that Romantic thought remains central to both artistic work and philosophical understanding.

Author : Anonim
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 894 pages
File Size : 52,6 Mb
Release : 1895
Category : Atlases
ISBN : UIUC:30112065583731

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The Century Dictionary: The Century dictionary by Anonim Pdf

Author : Randall Kennedy
Publisher : Vintage
Page : 337 pages
File Size : 44,8 Mb
Release : 2012-04-17
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9780307455550

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The Persistence of the Color Line by Randall Kennedy Pdf

A “provocative and richly insightful new book” (The New York Times Book Review) that gives us a shrewd and penetrating analysis of the complex relationship between the first black president and his African-American constituency. Renowned for his insightful, common-sense critiques of racial politics, Randall Kennedy now tackles such hot-button issues as the nature of racial opposition to Obama; whether Obama has a singular responsibility to African Americans; the differences in Obama’s presentation of himself to blacks and to whites; the challenges posed by the dream of a post-racial society; the increasing irrelevance of a certain kind of racial politics and its consequences; the complex symbolism of Obama’s achievement and his own obfuscations and evasions regarding racial justice. Eschewing the critical excesses of both the left and the right, Kennedy offers an incisive view of Obama’s triumphs and travails, his strengths and weaknesses, as they pertain to the troubled history of race in America.

Author : Richard C. Prust
Publisher : Rodopi
Page : 140 pages
File Size : 47,7 Mb
Release : 2004
Category : History
ISBN : 9042010886

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Wholeness by Richard C. Prust Pdf

The notion of a "person" is in deep philosophical trouble. And this has posed a deepening crisis for believers: Christian beliefs are, after all, irreducibly about persons. In response to this situation, Prust proposes a new way to reason about persons, one based on identifying persons as characters of action. Employing a phenomenology of action he calls "character logic," he develops a powerful new tool for thinking through some of the intractable dilemmas that have long befuddled belief: - Can we avoid being arbitrary and parochial in claiming that God is the only source of moral value? - Can we reconcile natural evil in the world with God's absolute power? - Can we continue to honor the historicity of faith-based claims in the face of critical history? - Can our personal life be eternal when neither timeless nor everlasting life is conceivable? - Can we accept our personal mortality and still affirm our destiny as eternal? Wholeness: The Character Logic of Christian Belief argues that character logic shows us a reasonable way to think about persons, one that puts theology on a new footing and gives affirmative answers to all these questions!

Author : Ben Bradley,Fred Feldman,Jens Johansson
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 517 pages
File Size : 53,5 Mb
Release : 2015-09
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9780190271459

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The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Death by Ben Bradley,Fred Feldman,Jens Johansson Pdf

Death has long been a pre-occupation of philosophers, and this is especially so today. The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Death collects 21 newly commissioned essays that cover current philosophical thinking of death-related topics across the entire range of the discipline. These include metaphysical topics--such as the nature of death, the possibility of an afterlife, the nature of persons, and how our thinking about time affects what we think about death--as well as axiological topics, such as whether death is bad for its victim, what makes it bad to die, what attitude it is fitting to take towards death, the possibility of posthumous harm, and the desirability of immortality. The contributors also explore the views of ancient philosophers such as Aristotle, Plato and Epicurus on topics related to the philosophy of death, and questions in normative ethics, such as what makes killing wrong when it is wrong, and whether it is wrong to kill fetuses, non-human animals, combatants in war, and convicted murderers. With chapters written by a wide range of experts in metaphysics, ethics, and conceptual analysis, and designed to give the reader a comprehensive view of recent developments in the philosophical study of death, this Handbook will appeal to a broad audience in philosophy, particularly in ethics and metaphysics.

Author : Terence Irwin,Terence H. Irwin
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 721 pages
File Size : 54,5 Mb
Release : 1990
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9780198242901

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Aristotle's First Principles by Terence Irwin,Terence H. Irwin Pdf

This book emphasises the systemic character of Aristotle's philosophy by examining questions on metaphysics, epistemology, philosophy and mind and ethics. His reliance on dialectic as the method of philosophy appears to conflict with the metaphysical realist view of his conclusions.

Author : Matthew Escobar
Publisher : BRILL
Page : 228 pages
File Size : 41,6 Mb
Release : 2016-09-07
Category : Literary Criticism
ISBN : 9789004323674

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The Persistence of the Human by Matthew Escobar Pdf

The Persistence of the Human explores literary and cinematic works dealing with personal identity and consciousness. Escobar examines works in which traumatic loss challenges identity and the question of “the human” arises concluding that narrative is essential for the self.

Author : Ivan Coyote,Zena Sharman
Publisher : arsenal pulp press
Page : 314 pages
File Size : 55,9 Mb
Release : 2011-05-03
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9781551524054

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Persistence by Ivan Coyote,Zena Sharman Pdf

Lambda Literary Award finalist American Library Association Stonewall Honor Book In the summer of 2009, butch writer and storyteller Ivan Coyote and gender researcher and femme dynamo Zena Sharman wrote down a wish-list of their favourite queer authors; they wanted to continue and expand the butch-femme conversation. The result is Persistence: All Ways Butch and Femme. The stories in these pages resist simple definitions. The people in these stories defy reductive stereotypes and inflexible categories. The pages in this book describe the lives of an incredible diversity of people whose hearts also pounded for some reason the first time they read or heard the words "butch" or "femme." Contributors such as Jewelle Gomez (The Gilda Stories), Thea Hillman (Intersex), S. Bear Bergman (Butch is a Noun), Chandra Mayor (All the Pretty Girls), Amber Dawn (Sub Rosa), Anna Camilleri (Brazen Femme), Debra Anderson (Code White), Anne Fleming (Anomaly), Michael V. Smith (Cumberland), and Zoe Whittall (Bottle Rocket Hearts) explore the parameters, history, and power of a multitude of butch and femme realities. It's a raucous, insightful, sexy, and sometimes dangerous look at what the words butch and femme can mean in today’s ever-shifting gender landscape, with one eye on the past and the other on what is to come. Includes a foreword by Joan Nestle, renowned femme author and editor of The Persistent Desire: A Femme-Butch Reader, a landmark anthology originally published in 1992. Ivan E. Coyote is the author of seven books (including the novel Bow Grip, an American Library Association Stonewall Honor Book) and a long-time muser on the trappings of the two-party gender system. Zena Sharman is the assistant director of Canada's national Institute of Gender and Health.

Author : Paul Stasi
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 243 pages
File Size : 49,5 Mb
Release : 2022-10-06
Category : Literary Criticism
ISBN : 9781009223157

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The Persistence of Realism in Modernist Fiction by Paul Stasi Pdf

Form vs. content, aesthetics vs. politics, modernism vs. realism: these entrenched binaries tend to structure work in early 20th century literary studies even among scholars who seek to undo them. The Persistence of Realism demonstrates how realism's defining concerns – sympathy, class, social determination – animate the work of Henry James, James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, Samuel Beckett and Ralph Ellison. In contrast to the oft-told tale of an aesthetically rich modernism overthrowing realism's social commitments along with its formal structures, Stasi shows how these writers engaged with realism in concrete ways. The domestic novel, naturalist fiction, novels of sentiment, and industrial tales are realist structures that modernist fiction simultaneously preserves and subverts. Putting modernist writers in conversation with the realism that preceded them, The Persistence of Realism demonstrates how modernism's social concerns are inseparable from its formal ones.