What Matters in Survival: Personal Identity and other Possibilities

237 Pages·2021·1.284 MB·English

by  Douglas Ehring

OUPCORRECTEDAUTOPAGEPROOFS–FINAL,22/3/2021,SPi
What Matters in Survival
OUPCORRECTEDAUTOPAGEPROOFS–FINAL,22/3/2021,SPi
OUPCORRECTEDAUTOPAGEPROOFS–FINAL,22/3/2021,SPi
What Matters in
Survival
Personal Identity and Other Possibilities
DOUGLAS EHRING
1
OUPCORRECTEDAUTOPAGEPROOFS–FINAL,22/3/2021,SPi
3
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OUPCORRECTEDAUTOPAGEPROOFS–FINAL,22/3/2021,SPi
Tomyamazingwife,Ann,andmywonderfuldaughters,KatandBella.
OUPCORRECTEDAUTOPAGEPROOFS–FINAL,22/3/2021,SPi
OUPCORRECTEDAUTOPAGEPROOFS–FINAL,22/3/2021,SPi
Acknowledgments
Myinterestinthetopicofpersonalidentitygoesbacktoametaphysicsclass
ItookfromBernardBerofskyingraduateschoolatColumbiaUniversity.It
was in that class that I first read Derek Parfit. As a consequence, Parfit
becameoneofmyphilosophicalheroesandhasremainedsoforthesemany
years.MydebttoParfitwillbeobvioustothereaderthroughoutthiswork.
Ihavealsobenefitedfromtheconversationsandcommentsofmycolleagues
inthePhilosophyDepartmentatSouthern Methodist UniversityinDallas,
Texas.IamespeciallygratefultoRobertHowellandBradThompson,who
read and commented on the entire manuscript. I am also grateful to
Southern Methodist University for a number of research leaves that made
possible much of the research that went into this book. I am also quite
thankful for the extensive and insightful comments from the referees at
Oxford University Press. I would also like to thank Rebecca Marin for her
very detailed editorial work on the entire manuscript. My wife, Ann, and
children, Kat and Bella, also deserve to be thanked for their support and
encouragement.
This book incorporates material from several published articles, listed
below.Permissionoftheoriginalpublishers(OxfordUniversityPress,John
WileyandSons,Taylor&Francis,andSpringer)isgratefullyacknowledged.
“SurvivalandTrivialFacts.”Analysis47(1987):50–4
“Personal Identity and Time Travel.” Philosophical Studies 52 (1987):
427–33
“Personal Identity and the R-Relation.” The Australasian Journal of
Philosophy73(1995):337–46
“Fission, Fusion and the Parfit Revolution.” Philosophical Studies 94
(1999):329–32
“Why ParfitDidNotGoFarEnough.”PhilosophicalStudies165(2013):
133–49
“Why Parfit Cannot Generalize from Fission.” Analytic Philosophy 59
(2018):413–25
“JohanssononFission.”ActaAnalytica34(2019):155–63
“WhyParfitCanRebutJohnston’sReductio.”Theoria86(2020):583‒594
“FissionandAnticipatingHavinganExperience.”Synthese(2020)https://
doi.org/10.1007/s11229-020-02860-4
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OUPCORRECTEDAUTOPAGEPROOFS–FINAL,22/3/2021,SPi
Contents
Introduction 1
1. TheDivergenceArgument 10
2. FissionandSharedStages 46
3. FissionandIndeterminacy 73
4. GeneralizingfromFission 96
5. TheTrivialityArgument 122
6. TheNon-TrivialityPrincipleandObjectionstoIts
Application 163
Epilogue:PossibleImplicationsforRationalityandEthics 201
Bibliography 219
Index 223