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It is not the case that It is prudent to eschew projects that cannot possibly be completed during the course of a normal lifetime.
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Reasons For
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Reason for 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 for 2 of 2
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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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Reasons Against
1 perspective
Reason against
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It is prudent to avoid taking on goals we cannot possibly attain.
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