Combining Texts

Ideas for 'Natural Kinds', 'The Enneads' and 'Varieties of Things'

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2 ideas

16. Persons / D. Continuity of the Self / 2. Mental Continuity / b. Self as mental continuity
A person is the whole of their soul [Plotinus]
     Full Idea: Man is not merely a part (the higher part) of the Soul but the total.
     From: Plotinus (The Enneads [c.245], 5.1.12)
     A reaction: The soul is psuche, which includes the vegetative soul. The higher part is normally taken to be reason. This seems pretty close to John Locke's view of the matter.
In continuity, what matters is not just the beginning and end states, but the process itself [Macdonald,C]
     Full Idea: What matters to continuity is not just the beginning and end states of the process by which a thing persists, perhaps through change, but the process itself.
     From: Cynthia Macdonald (Varieties of Things [2005], Ch.4)
     A reaction: This strikes me as being a really important insight. Compare Idea 4931. If this is the key to understanding mind and personal identity, it means that the concept of a 'process' must be a central issue in ontology. How do you individuate a process?