Identity And Universals: A Conceptualist Approach to Logical, Metaphysical, and Epistemological Problems of Contemporary Identity Theory
Acknowledgements
by Carolyn Ray

Date: 11 Nov 98
Copyright: Carolyn Ray

Many, many thanks to Dr. Karen Hanson, for serving as an original committee member, and picking up director duties in the final months; Dr. Noretta Koertge, Dr. Paul Vincent Spade, and Dr. Dennis Senchuk, for serving as committee members and for their inspiration and guidance throughout my education at Indiana University. In addition, I wish to thank Dr. Nino Cocchiarella, for suggesting the topic of identity and encouraging me to pursue it, for his contributions to my grasp of the logic of conceptualism, for helping me to organize my random thoughts, for comments and criticisms, and for patiently serving several years as director until his retirement. To the entire philosophy faculty at Indiana University, I am grateful for the opportunity to study in a rigorous analytic atmosphere with superb professors and to thoroughly learn philosophy by teaching my own students.

For their friendship, help, encouragement, and criticisms, I would like to thank Robert Sperry, who printed the final copy, Dr. Paul Hsieh and Mr. Andrew Breese, Esq., for tea-party discussions of concept formation and thought experiments; Dr. Laurence I. Gould, for continuous encouragement and insightful criticisms, his wife Ellen Stuttle, whom I have never met but on whose electronic correspondence I came to depend for criticisms as well as careful editing in the final stages, and their friend Dr. J. Roger Lee, whom I have also never met, but who took the trouble to research and comment on specific technical points at the behest of our mutual friends; Bryan Register, for rescuing me from including some philosophically very silly things in the dissertation; Tom Stone, for philosophical commentary and suggested references in the preparation for the defense; Irfan Khawaja, especially for early criticisms and discussions that inspired clarifications of my major theses, for important source recommendations, and for moral support; Marc Pelath, for comments and criticisms, and for insisting that I make it possible for him to call me 'Dr. Ray;' Farsam Shadab, for helping me get my bearings and encouraging me at every step of my professional work; Dr. Kenneth Livingston, for discussing neurophysiology and neuropsychology with me and for recommending helpful references in the field; Dr. David Kelley of the Institute for Objectivist Studies, for providing the invaluable opportunity to discuss this topic with my colleagues around the world, and to the Institute, for financing several of those opportunities; Kristen Hood, for corresponding with me concerning the brain-damaged patients with whom she worked at MIT; Dr. William R. Minto, for lending his perspective on identity and asking helpful questions through e-mail correspondence; my former teacher, Mary Ann Allen, for inspiring me to study philosophy and write on identity at Hollins College and for pointing me in the direction of Indiana University for graduate studies; my first philosophy teacher, Dr. Lawrence Becker, also at Hollins College, and for taking the trouble to recognize and guide my first attempts at philosophical writing; Dr. David Ross, for providing significant challenges during the creation of the first draft; Don Heath, for his friendship, especially throughout the very hard times that delayed this project; Will Thomas, for recommending the inclusion of a glossary; David Saum, for helping me to understand the importance of the explicit method of objectivity; Luke Turner, for discussing the identity/continuum tease with me; Roger Donway, whose interest in my philosophical work helped me to get this project done; my friend and neighbor, Heather Maguire, who was for weeks before the deadline my only human contact, for daily encouragement, and for care packages that simplified and supported my life during this busy and impoverished time; Jimmy Wales, for MDOP, for introducing me to IOS, and for long early discussions of philosophy, and to him, Christine Wales, and Timothy Shell, for being very patient employers and for understanding when the dissertation interfered with my work schedule; and Dr. Elizabeth Carey, whose friendship has been a central joy in my journey through graduate school. Thanks to all the rest of my friends and colleagues who have expressed interest in this project at one time or another, and who waited patiently while I ignored phone calls and e-mail during the final crunch. Your confidence has benefitted me more than you can ever know!

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