Transformative Experience
by L. A. Paul /
2015 / English / PDF
3.4 MB Download
As we live our lives, we repeatedly make decisions that shape our
future circumstances and affect the sort of person we will be. When
choosing whether to start a family, or deciding on a career, we
often think we can assess the options by imagining what different
experiences would be like for us. L. A. Paul argues that, for
choices involving dramatically new experiences, we are confronted
by the brute fact that we can know very little about our subjective
futures. This has serious implications for our decisions. If we
make life choices in the way we naturally and intuitively want
to--by considering what we care about, and what our future selves
will be like if we choose to have the experience--we only learn
what we really need to know after we have already committed
ourselves. If we try to escape the dilemma by avoiding an
experience, we have still made a choice.
As we live our lives, we repeatedly make decisions that shape our
future circumstances and affect the sort of person we will be. When
choosing whether to start a family, or deciding on a career, we
often think we can assess the options by imagining what different
experiences would be like for us. L. A. Paul argues that, for
choices involving dramatically new experiences, we are confronted
by the brute fact that we can know very little about our subjective
futures. This has serious implications for our decisions. If we
make life choices in the way we naturally and intuitively want
to--by considering what we care about, and what our future selves
will be like if we choose to have the experience--we only learn
what we really need to know after we have already committed
ourselves. If we try to escape the dilemma by avoiding an
experience, we have still made a choice.
Choosing rationally, then, may require us to regard big life
decisions as choices to make discoveries, small and large, about
the intrinsic nature of experience, and to recognize that part of
the value of living authentically is to experience one's life and
preferences in whatever way they may evolve in the wake of the
choices one makes.
Choosing rationally, then, may require us to regard big life
decisions as choices to make discoveries, small and large, about
the intrinsic nature of experience, and to recognize that part of
the value of living authentically is to experience one's life and
preferences in whatever way they may evolve in the wake of the
choices one makes.
Using classic philosophical examples about the nature of
consciousness, and drawing on recent work in normative decision
theory, cognitive science, epistemology, and the philosophy of
mind, Paul develops a rigorous account of transformative experience
that sheds light on how we should understand real-world experience
and our capacity to rationally map our subjective futures.
Using classic philosophical examples about the nature of
consciousness, and drawing on recent work in normative decision
theory, cognitive science, epistemology, and the philosophy of
mind, Paul develops a rigorous account of transformative experience
that sheds light on how we should understand real-world experience
and our capacity to rationally map our subjective futures.