The Kinds of Things
Subtitle: A Theory of Personal Identity Based on Transcendental Argument
Publisher: Open Court
Published: September 30, 1999
Language: eng
Format: Paperback
Number of pages: 288
ISBN-13: 9780812693201
Subjects: Epistemology, theory of knowledge; Metaphysics & ontology; Mind & Body; Identity (Philosophical concept); Psychology; Transcendental logic; Philosophy; Self (Philosophy); General; History & Surveys - Modern; Philosophy / Modern; Identity; Identity (Psychology); Kant, Immanuel,
First sentence: I normally think of myself as a single thing, even if I do not go around saying it.
Description: What are we? Doepke approaches the riddle of personal identity by way of a general theory of identity, and in so doing he challenges the influential Humean view of identity developed in Parfit's Reasons and Persons.

We normally think of ourselves and the things around us as objects which persist through fairly long stretches of time. Hume, along with Heraclitus and Buddha, denied this degree of permanence. Doepke argues for a view of the self that is more in harmony with both Kant and common sense.

With rigorous arguments, The Kinds of Things strongly supports the commonsense belief that, in normal human life, persons persist: even changes in our deeply-held affections and ideals do not erode the basis of our identity.