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    Carmelics

    A reasoning platform. Break down any belief into clear reasons, explore both sides, and weigh the evidence honestly.

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    LoyalLoyalJusticeJustice
    Made withinDC&Austin
    Statements
    321,452
    Perspectives
    108,905
    Topics
    42
    Home/Original/inverse
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    Inverse View

    It is not the case that The asymmetry in our attitudes toward prenatal and posthumous nonexistence shows that we are more concerned about the indefinite continuation of our lives than about their indefinite extension.

    ?Set your confidence on the premises below to see your aggregate.

    Reasons For

    2 perspectives
    Reason for 1 of 2
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    • 1.The asymmetry in attitudes toward prenatal and posthumous nonexistence is better explained by our forward-looking psychology than by any metaphysical preference for continuation over extension.
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    • 2.Parfit's work on psychological connectedness shows that our concern for the future self is grounded in anticipated experience, not in the mere temporal direction of a life's span.
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    • 3.Therefore, the asymmetry tracks the structure of desire and anticipation, not a deep preference for continuation, undermining the claim's inference from attitude to underlying concern.
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    Reason for 2 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Lucretius's symmetry argument, rehabilitated by Rosenbaum and others, holds that rational agents should be indifferent to both prenatal and posthumous nonexistence equally.
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    • 2.If the asymmetry in our attitudes is a product of evolutionary bias toward future-directed concern rather than rational evaluation, it cannot ground a genuine metaphysical preference for continuation over extension.
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    • 3.A preference shaped by irrational evolutionary contingency provides no philosophical justification for concluding that continuation is what we are more deeply concerned with.
      ?

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    Reasons Against

    1 perspective
    Reason against
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    • 1.We want to die later, or not at all, because it is a way of extending life.
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    • 2.We do not want to have been born earlier (we do not want to have always existed), even though that is also a way to extend life.
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    • 3.We would prefer a life stretching indefinitely into the future rather than one stretching indefinitely into the past.
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    Explore the most compelling reason on the other side.