The Human Animal: Personal Identity Without Psychology

New York, US: Oxford University Press (1997)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

Most philosophers writing about personal identity in recent years claim that what it takes for us to persist through time is a matter of psychology. In this groundbreaking new book, Eric Olson argues that such approaches face daunting problems, and he defends in their place a radically non-psychological account of personal identity. He defines human beings as biological organisms, and claims that no psychological relation is either sufficient or necessary for an organism to persist. Olson rejects several famous thought-experiments dealing with personal identity. He argues, instead, that one could survive the destruction of all of one's psychological contents and capabilities as long as the human organism remains alive--as long as its vital functions, such as breathing, circulation, and metabolism, continue

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 90,593

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

Analytics

Added to PP
2009-01-28

Downloads
972 (#12,798)

6 months
53 (#70,477)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Eric T. Olson
University of Sheffield

Citations of this work

Were You a Part of Your Mother?Elselijn Kingma - 2019 - Mind 128 (511):609-646.
We Are Not Human Beings.Derek Parfit - 2012 - Philosophy 87 (1):5-28.
Varieties of the extended self.Richard Heersmink - 2020 - Consciousness and Cognition 85:103001.
Animalism.Andrew M. Bailey - 2015 - Philosophy Compass 10 (12):867-883.

View all 234 citations / Add more citations

References found in this work

No references found.

Add more references