What Matters in Survival: Personal Identity and Other Possibilities (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780192894717)

This study is about what matters in survival--about what relation to a future individual gives you a reason for prudential concern for that individual. For common sense there is such a relation and it is identity, but according to Parfit common sense is wrong in this respect. Identity is not what matters in survival. In What Matters in Survival, Douglas Ehring argues that this Parfitian thesis does not go far enough. The result is the highly radical view "Survival Nihilism," according to which nothing matters in survival. Although we generally have motivating reasons to have prudential concern, and perhaps even indirect normative reasons for such concerns there is no relation that gives you a basic, foundational normative reason for prudential concern. This view goes beyond what Parfit calls the "Extreme View." It is the "More Extreme View" and is in effect something like an error theory about prudential reason as a special kind of normative reason.

Author: Douglas Ehring
ISBN-10: 0192894714
ISBN-13: 9780192894717
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Language: English
Published: 06/29/2021
Pages: 240
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.00lbs
Size: 8.50h x 5.40w x 0.80d

Review Citation(s):
Choice 06/01/2022