Binding the Self: The Ethics of Ulysses Contracts

Ethics 134 (1):57-88 (2023)
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Abstract

In a Ulysses contract, A gets B, at t1, to agree (i) to act at t2 in such a way that A is made to abide by her own earlier intentions and (ii) to ignore A’s later attempt to rescind the authorization. But why does A’s will at t2 lack the authority it had at t1? This article makes the case that a person has authority to enter a Ulysses contract only insofar as her expressed will at t1 is a better expression of the values that remain attributable to her at t2 than is her expressed will at t2.

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Andrew Franklin-Hall
University of Toronto, St. George Campus

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References found in this work

Freedom of the will and the concept of a person.Harry G. Frankfurt - 1971 - Journal of Philosophy 68 (1):5-20.
Force and freedom: Kant's legal and political philosophy.Arthur Ripstein - 2009 - Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
Free agency.Gary Watson - 1975 - Journal of Philosophy 72 (April):205-20.
Paternalism, Respect and the Will.Daniel Groll - 2012 - Ethics 122 (4):692-720.

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