Putting your money where your self is: Connecting dimensions of closeness and theories of personal identity

Studying personal identity, the continuity and sameness of persons across lifetimes, is notoriously difficult and competing conceptualizations exist within philosophy and psychology. Personal reidentification, linking persons between points in time is a fundamental step in allocating merit and blame and assigning rights and privileges. Based on Nozick's (1981) closest continuer theory we develop a theoretical framework that explicitly invites a meaningful empirical approach and offers a constructive, integrative solution to current disputes about appropriate experiments. Following Nozick, reidentification involves judging continuers on a metric of continuity and choosing the continuer with the highest acceptable value on this metric. We explore both the metric and its implications for personal identity. Since James (1890), academic theories have variously attributed personal identity to the continuity of memories, psychology, bodies, social networks, and possessions. In our experiments, we measure how participants (N = 1, 525) weighted the relative contributions of these five dimensions in hypothetical fission accidents, in which a person was split into two continuers. Participants allocated compensation money (Study 1) or adjudicated inheritance claims (Study 2) and reidentified the original person. Most decided based on the continuity of memory, personality, and psychology, with some consideration given to the body and social relations. Importantly, many participants identified the original with both continuers simultaneously, violating the transitivity of identity relations. We discuss the findings and their relevance for philosophy and psychology and place our approach within the current theoretical and empirical landscape

The Pelagic - Sargassum Ichthyofauna of the Eastern Gulf of Mexico

A total of 2857 fishes comprising 15 families and 40 species was collected at 62 localities in the eastern Gulf of Mexico between 1971 and 1976. The fauna was dominated by the Carangidae, Balistidae, and Syngnathidae. Monacanthus hispidus was the most abundant species and comprised 84.5% of the total fauna. Species diversity (H\u27) was variable within the Gulf and low in comparison with the western Atlantic Sargassum - associated ichthyofauna. Index of Affinity was high within the Gulf due to the abundance of M. hispidus. Perhaps conditions associated with community dispersal, for which M. hispidus is better adapted, permit this species to dominate this community. Additionally, species diversity differences may be due to substrate area or clumpsize

Direct measurement of the mechanism by which magnesium specifically modifies the mechanical properties of DNA

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