1.1 Prior’s Puzzle and the Two Views about the Nature of Time
1.2 Responses to Prior’s Puzzle
1.3 A Riposte
1.4 Concluding Remarks
References
2. Experience and Time
2.1 Justifying our Bias towards the Present
2.2 Value and the Metaphysics of Time
2.3 Concluding Remarks
References
3. Max Black and Backward Causation
3.1 Black’s Main Claim
3.2 Black’s Two Arguments
3.3 Analysing Black’s Arguments
References
4. Dummett on Reasons to Act and Bringing about the Past
4.1 Introduction
4.2 Dissecting Dummett’s Argument
4.3 The Second Sceptical Argument
4.4 The Third Sceptical Argument
4.5 Conclusion
References
5. Dummett on McTaggart’s Proof of the Unreality of Time
5.1 Introduction
5.2 McTaggart’s Argument
5.3 Temporal versus Spatial Immersion
5.4 Observer-independence
References
6. A Note on the Grandfather Paradox
6.1 Lewis’s Theory
6.2 Against Lewis’s Theory
6.3 Conclusion
References
7. Bulletproof Grandfathers, David Lewis, and ‘Can’t’-Judgements
7.1 A General Argument
7.2 Misapplied Contextualism
7.3 A Time Symmetry Argument
7.4 Alternative Arguments
7.5 Concluding Remarks
References
8. A Dilemma for Eternalists
8.1 Introduction
8.2 The Dilemma
8.3 Some Options
8.4 An Upshot
References
Part II. Identity
9. Identity and Extrinsicness
9.1 Introduction
9.2 Setting Up the Problem
9.3 Mackie on Best-Candidate Theories of Identity
9.4 Assessing Mackie
9.5 Conclusion
References
10. Best Candidate Theories and Identity
10.1 Introduction
10.2 Best-Candidate Theories of Identity
10.3 Brennan’s Interpretation
10.4 Assessing Brennan’s Response
10.5 Final Words
References
11 PossibleWorlds and Identity
11.1 Introduction
11.2 Forbes’s Cases
11.3 On Forbes’s Grounded Transworld Identities
11.4 Conclusion
References
12. Vague Identity and Vague Objects
12.1 Getting Clear about the Vague Identity Thesis
12.2 Considering The Ship of Theseus
12.3 Evans’s Proof
12.4 Responses to Evans’s Proof
12.5 The Correct Response to Evans’s Proof
12.6 A General Result
12.7 Conclusion
References
13. More on Rigidity and Scope
13.1 More’s Thesis
13.2 More’s Arguments
13.3 Why More’s Arguments Fail
13.4 Conclusion
References
14. Enduring Endurantism
14.1 Barker and Dowe’s First Argument
14.2 Barker and Dowe’s Second Argument
14.3 Barker and Dowe’s Third Argument
14.4 Conclusion
References
15. Identity of Truth-Conditions
15.1 Analysis Problem no. 19
15.2 The Solution
References
Part III. The Self
16. Some Notes on Animalism
16.1 Animalism
16.2 Why Animalism is True
16.3 Why Animalism can’t be True
16.4 A Familiar Analogy
16.5 Conclusion
References
17. Persons and Human Beings
17.1 The Lockean Conception of Person
17.2 The Animal Attribute Conception of Persons
17.3 Evaluating the Two Conceptions of Persons
17.4 Conclusion
References
18. The Story of ‘I’: Comments on Rudder-Baker’s Constitution View of Persons
18.1 Introduction
18.2 Rudder-Baker on Self-Consciousness and the First-Person
18.3 Rudder-Baker on the First-Person Perspective
18.4 A General Worry about Rudder-Baker’s View
18.5 Rudder-Baker on Personal Identity
18.6 Rudder-Baker on the Determinancy of Personal Identity
18.7 Rudder-Baker on Human Persons
References
19. Personal Identity and Extrinsicness
19.1 Introduction
19.2 Wiggins on the Case of Division
19.3 The Challenge of Division
19.4 Best-Candidate Theories and the “Only a and b” Condition
19.5 Extrinsicness of Personal Identity
19.6 Concluding Remarks
References
20. Personal Identity and Reductionism
20.1 Introduction
20.2 What Ontological Reduction Is
20.3 Ontological Reduction of Persons
20.4 Reductionism and What Matters
References
21. Bermúdez on Self-Consciousness
21.1 Introduction
21.2 Self-consciousness, ‘I’-thoughts, and the Deflationary Theory
21.3 Critique
21.4 Conclusion and Further Work
References
22. Anscombe on ‘I’
22.1 Introduction
22.2 Anscombe’s Challenge
22.3 The Tank Argument
22.4 Supporting the Referential View
References
23. Wittgenstein on the First-Person
23.1 The Problem with ‘I’-Judgements
23.2 Wittgenstein on the Two Uses of ‘I’
23.3 Analysing Wittgenstein’s View
23.4 The ‘I’-as-subject and Self-Consciousness
References
24. Persons and Values
24.1 Theories of Values and the Definition of ‘Person’
24.2 The Case of Derek Parfit
24.3 Two Theses about Personal Identity and What Matters
24.4 The Argument from Analysis
24.5 The Argument from Division
24.6 The Argument from Reductionism
24.7 Conclusion
References
Part IV. Afterthoughts
25. About Time
References
26. Affecting the Past
References
27. Of Identity
References
28. On Personal Identity
References
Index
Brian Garrett is a Professor at the School of Philosophy, The Australian National University. He specializes in analytic philosophy and metaphysics. He is the author of What is this thing called metaphysics? (Routledge, 2006; 2011; 2016), Elementary Logic (Acumen, 2012), and Personal Identity and Self-Consciousness (Routledge, 1998). He has published articles in top philosophy journals, like Mind, Analysis, The Philosophical Quarterly, and the Australasian Journal of Philosophy.
Jeremiah Joven Joaquin is an Associate Professor at the Department of Philosophy, De La Salle University, Manila, Philippines, where he is also a Research Fellow at the Southeast Asian Research Center and Hub and a Research Affiliate at the Center for Language Technologies. He specializes in metaphysics and logic. Presently, he is the President of the Philosophical Association of the Philippines and the founding Secretary-General of the Union of Societies and Associations of Philosophy in the Philippines.
This volume contains twenty-four essays by the British/Australian analytic metaphysician, Brian Garrett. These essays are followed by four short dialogues that emphasize and summarize some of the main points of the essays and discuss new perspectives that have emerged since their original publication.
The volume covers topics on the metaphysics of time, the nature of identity, and the nature and importance of persons and human beings. The chapters constitute the fruits of almost four decades of philosophical research, from Brian’s two award-winning essays, published in Analysis in 1983 and The Philosophical Quarterly in 1992, to his latest ideas about Fatalism and the Grandfather Paradox.
This book will be of interest to students and professional philosophers in the field of analytic philosophy.