Overview

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 completely harmless to dismiss the past. But this book argues that rationality requires temporal neutrality: if you are rational you don't engage in any kind of temporal discounting. The book draws on puzzles about real-life planning to build the case for temporal neutrality. How much should you save for retirement? Does it make sense to cryogenically freeze your brain after death? How much should you ask to be compensated for a past injury? Will climate change make your life meaningless? Meghan Sullivan considers what it is for you to be a person extended over time, how time affects our ability to care about ourselves, and all of the ways that our emotions might bias our rational planning. Drawing substantially from work in social psychology, economics and the history of philosophy, the book offers a systematic new theory of rational planning.

Full Product Details

9780192884282

Table of Contents

Reviews

In her exceptional new book . . . Meghan Sullivan aims to demonstrate that temporal bias is irrational and that we instead should be temporally neutral. . . . The best books in philosophy focus on a new (or underexplored) problems and make significant headway in solving those problems. Sullivan's Time Biases does exactly that. Her arguments are original, insightful, and usually compelling. Her understanding of the issues are so deep, and her writing so clear, that the careful reader can't help but gain a significant understanding of the relevant philosophical terrain. This book is an invaluable contribution to the literature on time biases, which will hopefully grow in the future, thanks in part to this groundbreaking work. * Travis Timmerman, Journal of Moral Philosophy * The book will be of interest to anyone wishing to gain a deeper philosophical and scientific understanding of their own patterns of prudential concern and planning behavior, as well as bigger questions concerning life, death, and meaning. The book is well-argued, and stylistically, it is a welcome departure from the dryness that is characteristic of much of analytic philosophy. * Tim Campbell, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews * I highly recommend this book both as an introduction to the topic of time bias and as a sophisticated and original treatment of the more specific topics that she addresses, a combined feat that is hard to achieve. She manages to be clear and challenging at the same time, making reading this book very enjoyable for anyone with philosophical interests. The reflection on the issues that she prompts does not quickly fade when the reading is past. * Alan Goldman, Analysis *

In her exceptional new book . . . Meghan Sullivan aims to demonstrate that temporal bias is irrational and that we instead should be temporally neutral. . . . The best books in philosophy focus on a new (or underexplored) problems and make significant headway in solving those problems. Sullivan's Time Biases does exactly that. Her arguments are original, insightful, and usually compelling. Her understanding of the issues are so deep, and her writing so clear, that the careful reader can't help but gain a significant understanding of the relevant philosophical terrain. This book is an invaluable contribution to the literature on time biases, which will hopefully grow in the future, thanks in part to this groundbreaking work. * Travis Timmerman, Journal of Moral Philosophy * The book will be of interest to anyone wishing to gain a deeper philosophical and scientific understanding of their own patterns of prudential concern and planning behavior, as well as bigger questions concerning life, death, and meaning. The book is well-argued, and stylistically, it is a welcome departure from the dryness that is characteristic of much of analytic philosophy. * Tim Campbell, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews * I highly recommend this book both as an introduction to the topic of time bias and as a sophisticated and original treatment of the more specific topics that she addresses, a combined feat that is hard to achieve. She manages to be clear and challenging at the same time, making reading this book very enjoyable for anyone with philosophical interests. The reflection on the issues that she prompts does not quickly fade when the reading is past. * Alan Goldman, Analysis * Time Biases is an exemplary instance of ethically engaged analytic philosophy at its best. * Brad Aeon, Kronoscope 23 *

In her exceptional new book . . . Meghan Sullivan aims to demonstrate that temporal bias is irrational and that we instead should be temporally neutral. . . . The best books in philosophy focus on a new (or underexplored) problems and make significant headway in solving those problems. Sullivan's Time Biases does exactly that. Her arguments are original, insightful, and usually compelling. Her understanding of the issues are so deep, and her writing so clear, that the careful reader can't help but gain a significant understanding of the relevant philosophical terrain. This book is an invaluable contribution to the literature on time biases, which will hopefully grow in the future, thanks in part to this groundbreaking work. * Travis Timmerman, Journal of Moral Philosophy * The book will be of interest to anyone wishing to gain a deeper philosophical and scientific understanding of their own patterns of prudential concern and planning behavior, as well as bigger questions concerning life, death, and meaning. The book is well-argued, and stylistically, it is a welcome departure from the dryness that is characteristic of much of analytic philosophy. * Tim Campbell, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews * I highly recommend this book both as an introduction to the topic of time bias and as a sophisticated and original treatment of the more specific topics that she addresses, a combined feat that is hard to achieve. She manages to be clear and challenging at the same time, making reading this book very enjoyable for anyone with philosophical interests. The reflection on the issues that she prompts does not quickly fade when the reading is past. * Alan Goldman, Analysis *

Author Information

Meghan Sullivan is the Wilsey Family College Professor of Philosophy at the University of Notre Dame and the Director of the Notre Dame Institute for Advanced Study. Her work focuses on time, modality, value theory, rational planning and religious belief. She's published work with many leading philosophy journals and current serves as a co-editor for Nous.

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available