3 May, Joshua Farris: "Personal Identity and the Creation of Self"

On 3 May Joshua Farris (Bochum University) will deliver a talk entitled "Personal Identity and the Creation of Self" at the Humane Philosophy Project-Ian Ramsey Centre seminar series.

Time: 5:00pm, Wednesday, 3 May

Venue: Faculty of Theology & Religion, Gibson Building, Radcliffe Humanities, Oxford

This talk is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served.

Abstract The fact that you cannot be generalized means that your personal identity is not fully captured by the common analytic options from: the body view, the brain view, or the memory continuity view. The answer is found in what analytic philosophers call the simple (or soul) view of personal identity. But, assuming the simple/soul view of personal identity demands that it is the particular rather than the body, the properties, or the generables of human existence that make you you. This means that you are an irreducible subject of consciousness. By exploring different notions of the soul view and irreducible subjectivity, Dr. Farris will argue that you are something of a primitive thisness, which likely yields the view that you are a created being (hence creationist-dualism in the Plato-Augustine-Descartes tradition). This gives a taste of Dr. Farris's work, The Creation of Self: A Case for the Soul (forthcoming July 1, 2023).

Joshua R. Farris is Humboldt Experienced Researcher Fellow and Visiting Researcher at the University of Bochum. He is also Visiting Professor at Missional University and London School of Theology. Previously, he was the Chester and Margaret Paluch Professor at Mundelein Seminary, University of Saint Mary of the Lake and The Creation Project, and Fellow at Heythrop College. He has taught at several universities in philosophy, theology, and Great Books. He has published over 50 peer-reviewed articles in a variety of journals in philosophy, philosophy of religion, analytic theology, systematic theology, historical theology, and interdisciplinary studies. He is also published in The Imaginative Conservative, The Christian Post, The American Mind, Mere Orthodoxy, and Essentia Foundation among others. He has recently completed a new monograph entitled The Creation of Self.