[ExI] agency-based personal identity defined

[Jef Allbright]

On 6/24/07, Thomas <thomas at thomasoliver.net> wrote:
> Earlier you mentioned my audience as your motive for belaboring this
> discussion.  In the interest of reducing compulsion I'd like you to know
> that I consider your above explanation competent and sufficient.  You have
> succeeded in expanding the scope of my understanding of personal identity.
> I hereby formally excuse you from feeling any explicit or implied obligation
> to perform this exercise on my behalf.  I very much appreciate your concern
> and I feel sure this appreciation will grow as I apply this concept in the
> future.  In addition I gained insight into the frustrating process of
> attempting to argue from an expanded context.  The paragraph above indicates
> that you've gotten better at it.  -- Thomas

Uh...thanks, I think.  But rather than "reducing [my] compulsion" to
increase the coherence and extensibility of our thinking on these
topics -- haven't you actually reinforced it? ;-)

A band of musicians playing together can be greater than the sum of
the musicians playing separately.  But that greater cooperative act is
the results of smaller acts of competition, selecting for arrangements
that work together at the higher level.

- Jef