Topics in
Metaphysics and
Epistemology
Personal Identity
Email: ns74@nyu.edu
Office: 503P Silver
Center
Office Hours: Tuesdays
2-3 or by appointment
Course: V83.0103-001
Time: MW 4:55-6:10
Location: 194 Mercer,
201
Course Description
This course will focus on the metaphysics of human persons. The human organism where you are could continue to live as a human vegetable, without any psychology. But could you outlive any changes in your psychology, however extreme? If not, what is the relation between you and the human organism where you are? We will address these and other questions about human persons in connection with more general questions about the metaphysics of objects which exist in space and time.
Grade
Distribution
Two papers will count for 35% and 55% of the
final
grade. Class participation will
count for 10% of the final grade.
Papers
One paper of 7-10 pages double-spaced, due on
March 9.
One paper of 10-15
pages
double-spaced, due on May 2.
You are encouraged,
but not
required, to submit rough drafts of the papers. The
optional rough draft of the first paper is due on
Wednesday March 2. The optional rough
draft of the second paper is due on Monday April 25.
Late papers will be
marked down
by 1/3 of a letter grade for each day the paper is late (for example,
from A to
A-, from A- to B+, and so on). If
you complete a late paper during the weekend, you should email it to me
as soon
as it is done, and then hand in a paper copy.
Extensions
will be not be granted except in extreme circumstances.
Plagiarism is
sufficient grounds
for an F in the course. Please
contact me if you have any questions about what constitutes plagiarism.
Attendance is required. It is also crucial to doing well in the
course.
The reading
assignments will
typically be short but difficult.
I strongly recommend reading each assignment twice.
You must do the reading assigned before
class.
The core text for the
seminar is The
Human Animal, by
Eric Olson. It is available at the
University Book Store, or for free at
http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/oso/public/
All other materials
will either
be distributed in class or made available on the
web.
Part I. The
Psychological Approach
Week 1: Course
Introduction
Week 2: Introduction
of the Psychological Approach
Shoemaker,
selections from "Personal Identity: a Materialist's Account"
Week 3: The Motivation
of the Psychological
Approach, I
Johnston, "Human
Beings"
Week 4: The Motivation
of the Psychological
Approach, II
Olson, chapter 3
Week 5: Arguing
Against the Psychological Approach
I: The Fetus Argument
Olson, chapter 4
Week 6: Arguing
Against the Psychological Approach
II: The Too Many Minds Problem
Olson, chapter 5
Shoemaker, "Self, Body, and
Coincidence", selection
Week 7: The Biological
Approach
Olson, chapter 6
Week 8: Functionalism
and Personal Identity
Shoemaker, "Self,
Body, and
Coincidence," continued
Week 9: Constitution
and Personal Identity
Baker, selections from
Persons
and Bodies: A Constitution View
Week 10: Formulation
of Four-Dimensionalism.
Defense, I
Sider, selections from
Four-Dimensionalism
Lewis, postscript to
"Survival and
Identity"
Week 11: Defense of
Four-Dimensionalism, II
Sider, selections from
Four-Dimensionalism
Week 12: First
Application of Temporal Parts
Lewis, "Survival and
Identity"
Parfit, "Lewis, Perry,
and What
Matters"
Week 13: Second
Application of Temporal Parts
Sider, selections from
Four-Dimensionalism
Week 14: Temporal
Parts and the Too Many Minds
Problem
Zimmerman,
"Material Persons"