Time biases : a theory of rational planning and personal persistence / Meghan Sullivan.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Sullivan, Meghan, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Practical reason.

Planning.

Time.

Physical Description:

vii, 196 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2018.

Summary:

Should you care less about your distant future? What about events in your life that have already happened? How should the passage of time affect your planning and assessment of your life? Most of us think it is irrational to ignore the future but harmless to dismiss the past. But this book argues that rationality requires temporal neutrality.

Contents:

1 The Received Wisdom p. 11

1.1 The Savings Struggle p. 11

1.2 The Received Wisdom p. 12

1.3 Discounting and Near Bias p. 13

1.4 Temporal Discounting and Risk Tolerance p. 17

1.5 Arguments for the Received Wisdom? p. 19

2 The Life-Saving Argument p. 20

2.1 The Art of Measurement p. 20

2.2 The Life-Saving Argument p. 22

2.3 Rationality Doesn't Require You to Care? p. 24

2.4 Bookstore Buddhism p. 26

2.5 Measuring a Whole Life p. 28

3 The Arbitrariness Argument p. 34

3.1 The Arbitrariness Argument p. 35

3.2 Arbitrariness and Bias p. 37

3.3 Should We Be Permissive? p. 40

3.4 Problems for Non-Arbitrariness? p. 42

4 Personal Volatility p. 48

4.1 Single-Self and Multiple-Self Models p. 49

4.2 Two Routes to Personal Discounting p. 55

4.3 A Qualitative Basis for Egoistic Concern? p. 56

4.4 The Concern Argument p. 58

4.5 Simple Connectedness and Moral Valence p. 59

4.6 Egoistic Concern and Bias p. 65

4.7 The Persistence Argument p. 68

4.8 The Two-Part Case for Future Neutrality p. 73

5 Preferences about the Past p. 75

5.1 A Negotiating Tip for Accident Victims p. 75

5.2 Bias Towards the Future p. 76

5.3 Determining Discount Functions for the Past p. 77

5.4 Do Subjective Probabilities Matter? p. 82

5.5 Preferences and Control p. 83

6 The No Regrets Argument p. 87

6.1 No Pain, No Gain? p. 87

6.2 The Mixed Tradeoff Argument p. 89

6.3 Resisting Temptation p. 91

6.4 Regrets, Affirmations, and Planning p. 93

6.5 The No Regrets Argument p. 96

6.6 The Dead Have No Regrets p. 98

6.7 The Teen Pregnancy Problem p. 100

6.8 Success and Neutrality p. 104

7 The Arbitrariness Argument (Again) p. 105

7.1 Einstein's Hollow Condolences p. 105

7.2 The Arbitrariness Argument (Again) p. 108

7.3 The Obvious Asymmetry p. 109

7.4 The Asymmetry of Emotion p. 111

7.5 The Asymmetry of Attachment p. 112

7.6 The Asymmetry of Control p. 114

7.7 The Asymmetry of Possibility p. 115

7.8 Non-Arbitrariness and Neutrality p. 119

8 Understanding Temporal Neutrality p. 120

8.1 A Perceptual Model for Past Discounting? p. 121

8.2 Self and Other Asymmetries p. 123

8.3 Time Biases as Evolved Emotional Heuristics p. 126

8.4 Two Mistakes about Temporal Neutrality p. 129

8.5 Planning in Neutral p. 131

9 Neutrality, Sunk Costs, and Commitment p. 134

9.1 The Sunk Cost Puzzle p. 135

9.2 Weak Forecasting and Weak Honoring p. 136

9.3 Sunk Costs and "Rational Irrationality"? p. 138

9.4 Sunk Costs and Rational Non-Reconsideration? p. 141

9.5 Temporal Neutrality and Rational Commitment p. 143

9.6 Sunk Costs and Structuralism? p. 144

9.7 Sunk Costs and Integrity? p. 148

9.8 Sticking to Your Plans p. 151

10 Neutrality and Life Extension p. 152

10.1 The Lazarus Problem p. 152

10.2 Afterlives p. 155

10.3 Caring about Difference? p. 157

10.4 Prioritizing Satisfaction p. 160

10.5 Temporal Neutrality and Life Extension p. 162

10.6 Caring about Phenomenology? p. 165

10.7 Better Retirements, Better Deaths p. 167

11 Neutrality and Meaning p. 168

11.1 The Ecclesiastes Problem p. 168

11.2 Meaning as a Form of Value p. 170

11.3 Future Bias about Meaning p. 173

11.4 From Future Bias to the Permanence Principle p. 175

11.5 From Permanence to Nihilism p. 176

11.6 Subjectivism about Meaning? p. 177

11.7 Heavenly Optimism? p. 179

11.8 Temporal Neutrality about Meaning p. 180

11.9 Meaning and Vulnerability p. 183.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 185-191) and indexes.

ISBN:

0198812841

9780198812845

OCLC:

1013819246