continuing education
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UniTartu Summer School
Ülikooli 18, 50090 Tartu
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Who Are You? Personal Identity, Brains, and the Selves

Philosophy Who are you? UniTartu Summer School 2026 University of Tartu
Author: Undercliff Creative

Who are you, really, and how do you know?

This course invites you to explore one of the most intimate and puzzling questions in human life: what it means to be a self. We begin with the basics: you are a biological organism, a living body with a brain that keeps you alive. But you are also a person, a phase of abilities and experiences that emerges only when the brain develops the right capacities. That person can grow, change, destabilise, or even momentarily disappear. Through this lens, we will look at how a sense of “I” is constructed, what happens when it fragments or divides, and why some parts of you – memories, perspectives, voices – may feel like strangers while still being part of your mind. You’ll encounter thought experiments, real neurological cases, and surprising insights from cognitive science that challenge the idea that there is a single, simple “you” inside your head.

At the same time, we will push beyond the borders of the body and question how far the self can stretch. Can your mind extend into notebooks, apps, tools, and other people? Are your environment and relationships part of your identity? And what can a disorder like depersonalisation and derealisation teach us about the fragile architecture that holds the self together? Through the themes of personhood, naked-brain scenarios, fragmented self-experience, and extended cognition, the course shows you how the self is built, maintained, supported, and sometimes disrupted. By the end, you won’t just have learned theories, you’ll have explored the flexible, surprising, and sometimes unsettling mechanisms that make you who you are.

General course information

Course dates27 July - 2 August, 2026 (one-week course, 5 study days)
Course fee700 EUR
Course formatsummer course
Study fieldPhilosophy; Metaphysics; Cognitive Science; Theoretical Psychology
LanguageEnglish
Study groupbachelor’s, master’s and PhD students, lifelong learners
Assessment / ECTSPass/Fail (3 ECTS)
Location

Tartu

Jakobi 2

Application will open 20 March 2026

Course description

This intensive summer school explores the metaphysics, psychology, and phenomenology of the self through four interconnected themes: the nature of persons, the metaphysical status of the “remnant person,” disruptions of selfhood in depersonalisation and derealisation, and the idea of extended minds and selves. The course approaches these topics through the lens of contemporary debates in personal identity, including animalism, emergent personhood, the distinction between biological and ontological identity, and the developmental and cognitive requirements for being a person.

Drawing on recent work in the philosophy of mind, cognitive science, and moral psychology, participants will examine how persons emerge from organisms, how phases of personhood can fragment or cease, how pathological alterations of consciousness reveal the structural conditions of selfhood, and how cognitive offloading and environmental scaffolding challenge traditional boundaries between mind, body, and world. By integrating metaphysical analysis with empirical findings on consciousness, brain function, and psychopathology, the course aims to offer a unified framework for thinking about who we are, what we are, and how our self-experience can extend, divide, or collapse.

Course lecturers

Course lecturerDescription
Uku ToomingAssociate Professor of Theoretical Philosophy at the University of Tartu
Course leader
Sadaf G. ZakiJunior Research Fellow in Philosophy at the Chair of Theoretical Philosophy, University of Tartu

Study information about the course

General interest in philosophical inquiry.

NB! This is a preliminary programme. The final schedule will be sent to the participants two weeks before the course starts.

Day 1: Monday, 27 July

Info session

Memory and Self-Deception

Day 2: Tuesday, 28 July

Depersonalization and Derealization

Day 3: Wednesday, 29 July

Free day

Day 4: Thursday, 30 July

Extended Mind, Extended Self

Day 5: Friday, 31 July

Naked Brain and Personhood

Recommended reading:

  • John Perry – Identity, personal identity and the Self
  • John Locke – Essay Concerning Human Understanding (Book II, Ch. XXVII)
  • Derek Parfit – Reasons and Persons, Part III
  • Eric Olson – The Human Animal (animalism)

(The readings are required for the preparation for the course)

Assignments:
A paragraph (400 words) written in response to an assigned reading.

By the end of this short course, students will:

  1. Understand the difference between what we are (human organisms) and who we are (persons), and how personhood functions as a phase stemming from a cluster of certain mental abilities rather than an identity.
  2. Analyse cases of fragmented or minimal selves, such as remnant persons, depersonalization, and derealization, to see what they reveal about the structure and limits of personhood.
  3. Evaluate the role of the brain in generating and sustaining personhood, including how cognitive abilities emerge, decline, or divide.
  4. Assess whether the self or mind can extend beyond the organism through tools, technologies, or social environments.
  5. Integrate biological, metaphysical, and psychological insights into a coherent framework for understanding the self and its boundaries.

Course registration info

  • Application period: 20 March – 20 April
  • Notification of acceptance: accepted participants will be informed after the application period, by 30 April at the latest
  • Deadline for paying the course fee: 31 May
  • UniTartu Summer School in Tartu: 27 July – 7 August

Only fully completed applications, including all required annexes, received by the deadline (20 April) will be considered for selection. Applicants must submit the following:

  • Online application form
    (application period: 20 March–20 April 2026)
  • Motivation letter (maximum 1 page), explaining:
    • your motivation to participate;
    • your expectations for the programme;
    • how the summer course relates to your studies and interests;
    • how you plan to use the knowledge and experience gained in the future.
  • Transcript of academic records
  • Copy of your passport
  • Proof of payment of the application fee (25 EUR)

The participants of the UniTartu Summer School courses are required to pay:

  • The application fee of 25 EUR must be paid by the application deadline (20 April) at the latest.
    The application fee is non-refundable.
  • The course fee is 700 EUR.
    Includes: Study materials, academic work with lecturers, Certificate of completion, cultural events in the evenings
    Not included: meals, transportation and accommodation

Please note that the course fee is payable only after you have been accepted into the course. Once accepted, you will receive a confirmation of acceptance together with an invoice. The course fee can only be paid based on the invoice issued to you.

By paying the application fee, course fee and cultural events fee, you accept the terms and conditions information document. You are required to tick the box in the credit card payment form to confirm you have read and agree to the terms and conditions. If you choose to pay by bank transfer, you will be informed of the same conditions.

Please note that by paying the fees, you are considered to have accepted the Terms and Conditions.

Cultural programme

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Arrival and housing

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Future study options

Until 20 Apr

UniTartu Summer School application period 20 March to 20 April

20 Mar 2026 00:00 –
20 Apr 2026 23:59