Choosing for Changing Selves

by Richard Pettigrew

What we value, like, endorse, want, and prefer changes over the course of our lives, sometimes as a result of decisions we make--such as when we choose to become a parent or move to a new country--and sometimes as a result of forces beyond our control--such as when our political views change as we grow older. This poses a problem for any theory of how we ought to make decisions. Which values and preferences should we appeal to when we are making our decisions? Our current values? Our past ones? Our future ones? Or some amalgamation of all them? But if that, which amalgamation? In Choosing for Changing Selves, Richard Pettigrew presents a theory of rational decision making for agents who recognise that their values will change over time and whose decisions will affect those future times.

Genres: Philosophy

272 pages, Hardcover

Published March 22, 2020

About the author

Richard Pettigrew is a Professor in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Bristol, UK

Reviews

[Heather Browning · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book aims to answer the question as to how we can make decisions that take into account our changing beliefs and values; which ones matter for our decisions? He argues that they should be considered as judgement aggregation problems and provides a detailed account as to how such aggregation and weighting should proceed. There is good use of examples and clear language to explain complex concepts, but this is very much a book written for a philosophical and not a lay-audience - in particular, ones quite fluent in formal methods. I had to skip through a lot of the equations and proofs, but was able to grasp the key points and was broadly sympathetic to most.