Animalism New Essays on Persons, Animals, and Identity

by Blatti, Stephan; Snowdon, Paul F.

• ISBN13: 9780191823305
• ISBN10: 0191823309
• Format: eBook
• Copyright: 2016-09-28
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

What are we? What is the nature of the human person? Animalism has a straightforward answer to these long-standing philosophical questions: we are animals. After being ignored for a long time in philosophical discussions of our nature, this idea has recently gained considerable support in metaphysics and philosophy of mind. It has also, amongst philosophers, occasioned strong opposition, even though it might be said to be the view assumed by much of the scientific community. Essays on Animalism is the first volume to be devoted to this important topic and promises to set the agenda for the next stage in the debate.

Containing mainly new papers as well as two highly important articles that were recently published elsewhere, this volume's contributors include both emerging voices in the debate and many of those who have been instrumental in shaping it. Some of their contributions defend animalism, others criticize it, still others explore its more general implications. The book also contains a substantial introduction by the editors explaining what animalism is, identifying leading issues that merit attention, and highlighting many of the issues that the contributors have raised.

Author Biography

Stephan Blatti, University of Memphis,Paul F. Snowdon, University College London

Stephan Blatti is Associate Professor and Chair of Philosophy at the University of Memphis, where he is also an affiliate member of the Institute for Intelligent Systems. After receiving his BA from Ohio State University, he completed his B.Phil and D.Phil at the University of Oxford. He held positions at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and Duke University before moving to Memphis. His work focuses primarily on personal identity and its relation to issues in ontology, philosophical psychology, philosophy of biology, and ethics. In addition to various articles, he is the co-editor (with Sandra Lapointe) of Ontology After Carnap (OUP 2016).

Paul Snowdon was educated at University College, Oxford, reading Philosophy, Politics, and Economics and graduating in 1968. He studied for the B.Phil at Oxford, between 1968 and 1970. After holding a lectureship in philosophy at the University of Reading, he became a Fellow and Lecturer in Philosophy at Exeter College, Oxford. In 2001 he was appointed Grote Professor of Mind and Logic at UCL, retiring in 2014. He has published one book on animalism and various articles on perception, the philosophy of mind and action, metaphysics, and the history of philosophy.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction, Stephan Blatti and Paul F. Snowdon
Part One
2. We Are Not Human Beings, Derek Parfit
3. Animalism vs. Constitutionalism, Lynne Rudder Baker
4. Constitution and the Debate between Animalism and Psychological Views, Denis Robinson
5. Remnant Persons: Animalism's Undoing, Mark Johnston
6. Thinking Animals without Animalism, Sydney Shoemaker
Part Two
7. Animalism and Remnant People, Eric Olson
8. Headhunters, Stephan Blatti
9. Thinking Parts, Rory Madden
10. Four-Dimensional Animalism, David Hershenov
Part Three
11. Animalism and the Varieties of Conjoined Twinning, Tim Campbell and Jeff McMahan
12. A Case in which Two Persons Exist in One Animal, Mark Reid
13. Animalism and the Unity of Consciousness, Paul F. Snowdon
14. Animal Ethics, Jens Johansson
15. The Stony Metaphysical Heart of Animalism, David Shoemaker