Many people think the only way for your life to go better is for it to contain more good things. But others deny this, and hold that the relations among the parts of your life, or perhaps some features of your life as a whole, can also make a difference to how well it goes.
This debate between atomists and holists about well-being has implications for self-interested rational choice, or prudence. If holistic considerations do matter, it might make sense to choose a shorter or otherwise worse future, if doing so would have a positive impact on the value of the life as a whole. To some, this is a ludicrous suggestion. Matters are also complicated by the fact that our views of what is valuable (either at a time or over a lifetime) often change. Philosophers differ on whether it is prudential for a young idealist to make future-affecting choices which she realizes she will regret as an old cynic. This one-day workshop aims to discuss these and related issues regarding the relationships among well-being, time, and prudential rationality. |
Funding note
This workshop is organized by the Academy of Finland research project Well-Being, Agency, and Happiness, directed by Antti Kauppinen ([email protected]). |