<HTML><BODY style="word-wrap: break-word; -khtml-nbsp-mode: space; -khtml-line-break: after-white-space; "><DIV><BLOCKQUOTE type="cite">Jef Allbright wrote:</BLOCKQUOTE><BLOCKQUOTE type="cite"><P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><BR></P> <P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">Damn.<SPAN class="Apple-converted-space"> </SPAN>Now I feel compelled to rebut this claim [...]</FONT></P> <P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><BR></P> <P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">Agency-based personal identity naturally accommodates our present</FONT></P> <P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">everyday view of a constant relationship between the agent and the</FONT></P> <P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">abstract entity which it represents. Even though both of these change</FONT></P> <P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">with time, the relationship -- the personal identity --<SPAN class="Apple-converted-space"> </SPAN>is constant.</FONT></P> <P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">Agency-based personal identity is more extensible because it</FONT></P> <P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">accommodates the idea of duplicate persons with no paradox and no</FONT></P> <P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">hanging question of what constitutes sufficient physical/functional</FONT></P> <P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">similarity.<SPAN class="Apple-converted-space"> </SPAN>And agency-based personal identity accommodates future</FONT></P> <P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">scenarios of variously enabled/limited variants of oneself performing</FONT></P> <P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">tasks on behalf of a common entity and viewed as precisely *that*</FONT></P> <P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">entity for social/moral/judicial purposes by itself (itselves) and</FONT></P> <P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">others.<SPAN class="Apple-converted-space"> </SPAN>Perhaps counter-intuitively, agency-based personal identity</FONT></P> <P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">shows us that agents more specifically differentiated in their</FONT></P> <P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">function will maintain the entity-agent relationship more reliably due</FONT></P> <P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">to less potential for conflict based on similar values expressed</FONT></P> <P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">within disparate contexts.</FONT></P> <P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><BR></P> <P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">- Jef</FONT></P></BLOCKQUOTE><BR>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 </DIV><DIV></DIV><BR><DIV> <DIV style="text-align: center;"><A href="mailto:Thomas@ThomasOliver.net">Thomas@ThomasOliver.net</A></DIV> </DIV><BR></BODY></HTML>