Experimental Philosophy of Identity and the Self - (Advances in Experimental Philosophy) by Kevin Tobia & James R Beebe & Justin Sytsma (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Exploring issues ranging from the metaphysical to the moral and legal, a team of esteemed contributors bring together some of the most important and cutting-edge findings in experimental philosophy of the self to address longstanding philosophical questions about personal identity, such as: What makes us today the same person as our childhood and future selves? Can certain changes transform us into a different person? Do our everyday moral practices presuppose a false account of who we are?

Chapters offer a survey of recent empirical work and foster dialogue between experimental and traditional philosophical approaches to identity, covering the moral self, dual character concepts, true self, transformative experience and the identity conditions collective entities. With novel experiments and thought-provoking applications to practical concerns including law, immigration, bioethics and politics, this collection highlights the value and implications of empirical work on personal identity.

Review Quotes

"Theories of personal identity are unavoidably based, in part, on intuitions about what changes we could and could not survive. But discovering what our intuitions really are and understanding what they show are difficult. The essays in this brilliant collection constitute the best work to date on these important issues." --Jeff McMahan, Sekyra and White's Professor of Moral Philosophy, University of Oxford, UK

"The last decade has seen an explosion of work on how people think about the self. Tobia's outstanding collection provides an ideal introduction to the state-of-the-art and an impressive set of articles by leaders in the field. It will be essential reading for anyone working on the nature of self and personal identity." --Shaun Nichols, Professor of Philosophy, Cornell University, USA

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