Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-8ctnn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T02:49:38.572Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The real puzzle of the self-torturer: uncovering a new dimension of instrumental rationality

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2020

Chrisoula Andreou
Chrisoula Andreou*
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA
*
Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The puzzle of the self-torturer raises intriguing questions concerning rationality, cyclic preferences, and resoluteness. Interestingly, what makes the case puzzling has not been clearly pinpointed. The puzzle, it seems, is that a series of rational choices foreseeably leads the self-torturer to an option that serves his preferences worse than the one with which he started. But this is a very misleading way of casting the puzzle. I pinpoint the real puzzle of the self-torturer and, in the process, reveal a neglected but crucial dimension of instrumental rationality.

Keywords

Cyclic preferencesinstrumental rationalityintransitivitypuzzle of the self-torturerresolutenessvaguenessWarren Quinn
Type
Articles
Information
Canadian Journal of Philosophy , Volume 45 , Issue 5-6: Special Issue: Belief, Action, and Rationality over Time , December 2015 , pp. 562 - 575
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Journal of Philosophy 2015

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Andreou, Chrisoula. 2015a. “Cashing out the Money-pump Argument.”; Philosophical Studies doi:10.1007/s11098-015-0555-5.Google Scholar
Andreou, Chrisoula. 2015b. “Parity, Comparability, and Choice.”; Journal of Philosophy 112: 5–22.10.5840/jphil201511211CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Andreou, Chrisoula. 2007. “There Are Preferences and Then There Are Preferences.”; In Economics and the Mind, edited by Montero, Barbara and White, Mark D., 115–126. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Arntzenius, Frank, and McCarthy, David. 1997. “Self Torture and Group Beneficence.”; Erkenntnis 47: 129–144.10.1023/A:1005376607563CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davidson, Donald, McKinsey, J., and Suppes, Patrick. 1955. “Outlines of a Formal Theory of Value.”; Philosophy of Science 22: 140–160.10.1086/phos.1955.22.issue-2CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MacIntosh, Duncan. 2010. “Intransitive Preferences, Vagueness, and the Structure of Procrastination.”; In The Thief of Time: Philosophical Essay on Procrastination, edited by Andreou, Chrisoula and White, Mark D., 68–86. New York: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Papineau, David. 2015. “Can We Really See a Million Colours?”; In Phenomenal Qualities, edited by Coates, Paul and Coleman, Sam, 274–297. New York: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Quinn, Warren. 1993a. “The Puzzle of the Self-Torturer”;, In Morality and Action, edited by Foot, Philippa. 198–209. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Quinn, Warren. 1993b. “Putting Rationality in Its Place”;. In Morality and Action, edited by Foot, Philippa. 228–255. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Raffman, Diana. 1994. “Vagueness without Paradox.”; The Philosophical Review 103: 41–47.10.2307/2185872CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Temkin, Larry S. 2012. Rethinking the Good. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Temkin, Larry S. 1996. “A Continuum Argument for Intransitivity.”; Philosophy & Public Affairs 25: 175–210.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tenenbaum, Sergio, and Raffman, Diana. 2012. “Vague Projects and the Puzzle of the Self-torturer.”; Ethics 123: 86–112.10.1086/667836CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Voorhoeve, Alex, and Binmore, Ken. 2006. “Transitivity, the Sorites Paradox, and Similarity-based Decision-making.”; Erkenntnis 64: 101–114.10.1007/s10670-005-2373-1CrossRefGoogle Scholar