Abstract |
This thesis analyzes L.A. Paul’s concept of transformative experience. It specifically analyzes Paul’s criteria for transformative experiences, which are experiences that are so epistemically and personally transformative that an agent can’t know what it’s like to have a TE until having the experience itself. Paul argues that the transformative nature of these experiences prevent us from being able to make a rational choice using our normative way of decision-making. According to Paul, this is especially problematic because some of life’s biggest choices involve TEs. I begin with an overview of Paul’s main thought experiments that illustrate the structure of TEs that real-world agents face. I then clarify Paul’s criteria for TE, and ET and PT experiences. I argue that life’s biggest choices are not ET, except in very rare cases, and thus are not TEs. I conclude that in the vast majority of cases, we can make rational choices when faced with life’s biggest decisions
|
Keywords | No keywords specified (fix it) |
Categories | (categorize this paper) |
Options |
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Download options
References found in this work BETA
Citations of this work BETA
No citations found.
Similar books and articles
Expecting the Unexpected.Tom Dougherty, Sophie Horowitz & Paulina Sliwa - 2015 - Res Philosophica 92 (2):301-321.
How You Can Reasonably Form Expectations When You're Expecting.Nathaniel Sharadin - 2015 - Res Philosophica 92 (2):1-12.
How to Rationally Approach Life's Transformative Experiences.Marcus Arvan - 2015 - Philosophical Psychology 28 (8):1199-1218.
Transformative Experience and Decision Theory.Richard Pettigrew - 2015 - Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 91 (3):766-774.
Bullying - Transformative Potentiality?Charlotte Mathiassen - 2013 - Outlines. Critical Practice Studies 14 (2):184-204.
Near-Death Experiences: Understanding Visions of the Afterlife.John Martin Fischer & Benjamin Mitchell-Yellin - 2016 - Oxford University Press USA.
Riding Into Transformative Learning.Jane Mathison & P. Tosey - 2008 - Journal of Consciousness Studies 15 (2):67-88.
Précis of Transformative Experience.L. A. Paul - 2015 - Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 91 (3):760-765.
Aesthetic Experience, Transitional Objects and the Third Space: The Fusion of Audience and Aesthetic Objects in the Performing Arts.Ian Woodward & David Ellison - 2010 - Thesis Eleven 103 (1):45-53.
L. A. Paul's Transformative Experience.John Campbell - 2015 - Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 91 (3):787-793.
Transformative Experience: Replies to Pettigrew, Barnes and Campbell.L. A. Paul - 2015 - Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 91 (3):794-813.
Analytics
Added to PP index
2015-12-25
Total views
13 ( #711,458 of 2,403,031 )
Recent downloads (6 months)
1 ( #552,435 of 2,403,031 )
2015-12-25
Total views
13 ( #711,458 of 2,403,031 )
Recent downloads (6 months)
1 ( #552,435 of 2,403,031 )
How can I increase my downloads?
Downloads