Derek and I started talking about Buddhism a few years ago. I reckon that if all you'd published was Reasons and Persons, that would have been enough. The fact that it got on everyone's nerves while I was at school was a token of its power. Some of my friends were forced to write refutations of it, and it was rumored that Derek had given up going to lectures because he didn't believe in personal identity...
But here he is with volumes 1 and 2 of On What Matters coming out. Exciting. HT Shahar Ozeri.
In particular, I'm eager to see what he does with non-subjectivist theories of ethics.
I'm actually re-reading the section on personal identity in "Reasons and Persons" right now. Parfit had put a pdf up of of a rough draft of "On What Matters" for a limited time as a way to garner some feedback and criticism and be able to work in his own responses by publication date. Unfortunately I missed the window of time that the pdf was available. There is already a secondary text on "OWM" that came out in 2009!
ReplyDeleteI wish I had time, seems like a daunting task to read through it.
Nice one Thomas.
ReplyDelete