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Rooted in the Past, Hooked in the Present: Vulnerability to Contingency and Immunity to Regret
Author(s) -
Bagnoli Carla
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
philosophy and phenomenological research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.7
H-Index - 39
eISSN - 1933-1592
pISSN - 0031-8205
DOI - 10.1111/phpr.12293
Subject(s) - regret , contingency , perspective (graphical) , argument (complex analysis) , agency (philosophy) , vulnerability (computing) , epistemology , social psychology , psychology , philosophy , computer science , computer security , biochemistry , chemistry , artificial intelligence , machine learning
The perspective of deliberative choice is constitutively from here. This simple truth carries significant implications for our agency and integrity, some of which are the focus of Wallace's thought‐provoking essay. Wallace is concerned with the discrepancy between our present attachments and the rational justification of past decisions, which threatens our personal and moral integrity.[Note 1. R. Jay Wallace, The View from Here: On Affirmation, ...] In what follows, I raise some questions about Wallace's claim that attachments make us immune to regret and, ultimately, about his account of the impact of contingency in our practical thought. My argument revolves around two cases of immunity to regret, due to the agent's attachment to a ground project. Contrary to Wallace, I argue that in these cases the agent's inability to regret that things had not gone otherwise is neither unreasonable nor morally objectionable.