PERSONAL IDENTITY AND THE SELF

Philosophy 736-232-001

University of Wisconsin/Milwaukee Fall 2002

Course Description

In this course we will investigate what philosophy can tell us about our distinctive nature as persons. What makes us the particular persons that we are and how is this identity preserved in time?  Is the biological death of the body also the death of the person?  Does each of us have something as a unique and unified `self'?  Is this self the object of introspection?  Does our existence amount to the existence of the self?

In the first part of the course, we will discuss what makes a person the same individual as time goes by. Does personal identity depend on the continuity of memories, beliefs and psychological traits?  Or does it rather depend on the continuity of the body?  Or is it a matter of the persistence of an immortal and immaterial soul?  In discussing these questions, particular attention will be devoted to the treatment of cases where continued personhood is uncertain (like brain bisection experiments, amnesia, multiple personality disorder, schizophrenia, and science fiction cases like "Star Trek" style teletransporter or body exchanges). We will then consider the implications of theories of personal identity for understanding what counts as the death of a person. In the second part of the course, we will look at the implications of theories of personal identity for the idea of the ‘self’. We will discuss issues about the unity of the self, self-deception and the nature of self-knowledge. If time permits, we will consider the implications of theories of personal identity and the self for psychology, morality, law and medicine. We will read works of contemporary philosophers in the analytic tradition.

REQUIRED TEXTS

 

J. Perry, A Dialogue on Personal Identity and Immortality. Hackett, 1978	B R
J.F. Rosenberg, Thinking Clearly About Death (TCAD), 2nd ed. Hackett, 19982	B
D. Dennett, "Where Am I?" in Hofstadter, Dennett, The Minds'I, pp. 217-231	R
D. Dennett & N. Humphrey, "Speaking for Ourselves," in Brainchildren http://cogprints.soton.ac.uk/documents/disk0/00/00/08/10/index.html	I
Nagel "Brain Bisection and the Unity of Consciousness" in Mortal Questions	R
D. Dennett, "The Self as a Center of Narrative Gravity," http://ase.tufts.edu/cogstud/papers/selfctr.htm	I
D. Velleman "The Self as Narrator" http://www-personal.umich.edu/~velleman/Work/Narrator.html	I
D. Dennett "Conditions of Personhood" in Brainstorms, Ch. 14 http://www.uwm.edu/Library/ERES/ferrero/PHILOS232.html	E R
A. Turing "Computing Machinery and Intelligence" http://www.abelard.org/turpap/turpap.htm	I
S. Luper "Death" in Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/death	I

Supplementary Readings

 

D.H. Sanford "Where was I?" in The Mind's I ch. 14	R
D.R. Hofstadter "The Turing Test: A Coffeehouse Conversation" in The Mind's I ch. 5	R
D.R. Hofstadter & D. Dennett (eds.) The Mind's I	R
D. Kolak & R. Martin (eds.) Self & Identity	R
A. Rorty, "Persons and Personae" in Mind in Action, pp. 27-46	E R
Dennett "The Origins of Selves" http://ase.tufts.edu/cogstud/papers/originss.htm	I
J. Perry (ed.) Personal Identity	R

Readings marked with B are available at the UWM bookstore
Readings marked with I are available on the internet
Readings marked with R are on Reserve at the Golda Meir Library
Readings marked with E are on Electronic Reserve at the Golda Meir Library

N.B. You are required to read the assigned texts before attending the lecture

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SCHEDULE OF TOPICS AND READINGS

 

Date	Lecture	Topic	Readings	Assignments
9/3	I	Presentation of the course, syllabus and grading policy
9/6	II	First Night	Perry Dialogue I
9/10	III	Second Night	Perry Dialogue II
9/12	IV		same as above
9/17	V	Third Night	Perry Dialogue III
9/19	VI		same as above
9/24	VII	Body and Soul	Rosenberg TCAD 2.1-2.6 (optional) Rosenberg TCAD ch.1
9/26	VIII		Rosenberg TCAD 2.7-2.12
10/1	IX		Rosenberg TCAD 3
10/3	X	Summary and Review
10/8	XI	TEST IN CLASS	The Calvin and Hobbes Clone Series: 1st Week 2nd Week 3rd Week 4th Week	TEST IN CLASS
10/10	XII	The Body	Dennett "Where Am I?" D.H. Sanford "Where was I?" (optional)	Topics of First Paper distributed
10/15	XIII		Rosenberg TCAD ch.4
10/17	XIV	Disunity - Brain Bisection	Nagel "Brain Bisection and the Unity of Consciousness"	DRAFT OF FIRST PAPER DUE IN CLASS
10/22	XV	Writing Workshop	See instructions on my homepage	COMMENTS ON DRAFT DUE IN CLASS
10/24	XVI		TBA
10/29	XVII	Writing Workshop	See instructions on my homepage
10/31	XVIII	Multiple Personality Disorder	Dennett "Speaking for Ourselves"
11/5	XIX	Narrative Unity	Dennett "The Center of Narrative Gravity" Velleman "The Self as Narrator"	FIRST PAPER DUE IN CLASS
11/7	XX		same as above
11/12	XXI	Persons	Rosenberg TCAD ch.5 Dennett "Conditions of Personhood"	Topics of the second paper distributed
11/14	XXII		same as above
11/19	XXIII	Persons and Machines	Turing "Computing Machinery and Intelligence" D.R. Hofstadter "The Turing Test: A Coffeehouse Conversation" (optional)
11/21	XXIV	Writing Workshop	See instructions on my homepage	DRAFT OF THE SECOND PAPER DUE IN CLASS
11/26	XXV	Writing Workshop	See instructions on my homepage
11/28	-------	HAPPY THANKSGIVING	--------------------------------------	-------------------------------
12/3	XXVI		same as lecture XXIII	Take home final distributed
12/5	XXVII	Death	Rosenberg TCAD Ch. 10 Luper "Death"	SECOND PAPER DUE IN CLASS
12/10	XXVIII		same as above
12/12	XIX	Summary and Review
MON 12/16		TAKE-HOME FINAL EXAM DUE IN MY MAILBOX CURTIN 6th Floor by 4:00 p.m.	PLEASE NOTICE  NEW DATE AND TIME	TAKE-HOME FINAL EXAM DUE IN MY MAILBOX CURTIN 6th Floor by 4:00 p.m.

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ASSIGNMENTS AND GRADING POLICY

 

Class participation (including quality of peer commentaries in the writing workshop)	15%
1 Test in class	8%
2 Short Papers (900 words each)	21% each
Final Exam	35%

• Attendance to lectures and writing workshops is mandatory
  
• PAPERS MUST BE SUBMITTED AT THE BEGINNING OF THE CLASS BY THE DEADLINES indicated above. All late papers will be marked 1 grade down for each day or portion thereof that they are late, including weekends and holidays (for instance, if a paper is due on Tuesday at 2:05 p.m. and it is turned in on Wed at 5.00 p.m., it will be penalized two full grades). The penalty applies BOTH to the first and the final draft of each paper (e.g., if you turn both the first and the final draft one day late, your will be penalized 2 full grades).
  
• In order to pass this course you MUST COMPLETE ALL assignments. You must take the in-class tests, participate in the writing workshops, turn in both papers and take the final exam  

  click here to see the GRADING GUIDELINES

Please note that PLAGIARISM is a serious instance of Academic Misconduct

Plagiarism includes:

1. Directly quoting the words of others without using quotation marks or indented format to identify them; or,
2. Using sources of information (published or unpublished) without identifying them; or,
3. Paraphrasing materials or ideas of others without identifying the sources.

UWM Policy concerning Plagiarism is available at http://www.uwm.edu/Dept/OSL/DOS/conduct.html 

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WRITING WORKSHOP

In this class, you are given the opportunity to benefit from the comments of your peers on the first draft of your papers. You must submit the first draft of the papers a few days in advance of the writing workshop. Two other students will be assigned to you as commentators. You will meet with them at the writing workshop and discuss with them how to improve your draft. You then have some more days to revise your draft before submitting the final version for grading (for the exact deadlines, see the schedule above). You will also be commenting on the work of two other students. You will receive their drafts on the day when your draft is due. You will turn in your written comments at the writing workshop.

Please note that the active participation in the writing workshop is REQUIRED in order to pass the class. Detailed instructions about the writing workshop will be distributed during the term and made available on my homepage at http://www.uwm.edu/~ferrero/writing-workshop.htm.

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CLASS REFLECTOR: a class reflector (pi@uwm.edu) has been set up up for general announcements. N.B. If you do not use your ePanther/alpha account regularly, it is your responsibility to make sure that your UWM mail is forwarded to your preferred email account (for instructions on UWM ePanther accounts go to http://www.uwm.edu/IMT/ePanther/).

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Academic Misconduct Policy: see http://www.uwm.edu/Dept/OSL/DOS/conduct.html

Drop/Audit Policy: Students will be allowed to drop the course up through the last day permitted by the Registrar. Likewise, students may elect to audit the course up through the last day permitted by the Registrar

Grievance and Appeals Policy: The Department of Philosophy has procedures for handling student grievance and grade-appeals. Information is available in the Department office, 612 Curtin Hall

Special Assistance: If you need special assistance, please contact me the first day of class

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Last Revised December 4, 2002