Philosophy of Mind Seminar (Friday - Week 5, TT24)

Abstract: What makes a person the same across time? Rather than try to answer this question via thought experiments and abstract principles, we can look to the animals for insight. Reidentification of individuals is rife throughout the animal kingdom, from skylarks to vervet monkeys. We argue that what animals track are just physical objects and whether an animal reidentifies a physical object is a function of whether the object falls under some category of practical relevance to them. A skylark might identify one physical object as its mate, another as its offspring, and another as its seasonal neighbour. Humans are animals too, and we argue that our own practices of reidentification are largely continuous with what we find in birds and monkeys.