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    It is prudent to eschew projects that cannot possibly be ... — Carmelics
    Home/Afterlife & Death
    HistoryEditSee Inverse

    It is prudent to eschew projects that cannot possibly be completed during the course of a normal lifetime.

    Afterlife & Death
    ?Rate how convincing each reason is below to see the overall strength.
    1 reason for
    2 reasons against

    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
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    • It is prudent to avoid taking on goals we cannot possibly attain.
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    Reasons Against

    2 perspectives
    Reason against 1 of 2
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    • 1.Many of humanity's greatest achievements—cathedrals, legal systems, scientific traditions—were projects no single lifetime could complete.
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    • 2.Participating in a worthwhile transgenerational project is prudentially rational even if one's personal contribution remains forever incomplete.
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    • 3.Prudence governs the quality of one's engagement with meaningful ends, not merely the probability of living to see their completion.
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    Reason against 2 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Bernard Williams' argument that categorical desires ground a person's reasons for living applies equally to indefinitely extended projects.
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    • 2.Eschewing an incompletable project that constitutes one's deepest categorical desire would undermine the very prudential self whose interests the advice purports to protect.
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    Afterlife & Death

    Related

    Bernard Williams' argument that categorical desires ground a person's reasons fo...Eschewing an incompletable project that constitutes one's deepest categorical de...It is prudent to avoid taking on goals we cannot possibly attain.Many of humanity's greatest achievements—cathedrals, legal systems, scientific t...
    +2 moreShow less
    Participating in a worthwhile transgenerational project is prudentially rational...Prudence governs the quality of one's engagement with meaningful ends, not merel...

    Similar

    It is prudent to avoid taking on goals we cannot possibly attain.79%Immortality is necessary to evade the futility of human achievement72%We might 'thanatize' our desires by abandoning all desires that death ...71%It is not irrational to prefer not to be at the end of our lives, unab...71%

    Source

    AI-extracted3/3 agreementValid
    SEP: death
    prudent to avoid taking on goals we cannot possibly attain, and hence prudent to eschew projects that cannot possibly be completed during the course of a normal lifetime
    View source passageHide passage
    However, the core idea of adapting our desires is useful, if not taken to an extreme. It is prudent to avoid taking on goals we cannot possibly attain, and hence prudent to eschew projects that cannot possibly be completed during the course of a normal lifetime.
    Extraction notes

    Validity: The passage explicitly states that it is prudent to avoid unattainable goals, and presents the conclusion about eschewing incompletable lifetime projects as a specific instance of that general principle, connected by "and hence."

    Confidence: High confidence; the text explicitly draws this inference using 'and hence'.

    Details

    Type
    claim
    Perspectives
    3 (1 for, 2 against)
    Edits
    1 edit