In this fascinating dialogue, L.A. Paul, a Yale professor specializing in metaphysics and cognitive science, delves into transformative experiences that reshape our identities. They explore the intricacies of decision-making, emphasizing how significant choices like parenthood redefine desires and self-perception. The conversation touches on the balance between empathy and rational charity, and the moral complexities tied to regret and future selves. A thought-provoking discussion on how personal experiences impact our values and ethical beliefs unfolds, leaving listeners reflecting on their own transformative moments.
Transformative experiences fundamentally change a person's sense of self, raising questions about rational decision-making, empathy, and the relationship between past, present, and future selves.
The subjective and emotional nature of human experiences complicates rational decision-making, highlighting the challenge of reconciling objective calculations with our subjective psychological experiences.
Transformative experiences are characterized by their ability to fundamentally change a person's sense of self. They involve an encounter that both lacks essential details and brings about a complete transformation, destroying certain aspects of the current self and creating a new one. Examples of transformative experiences include becoming a parent or undergoing a major illness. The person facing such an experience often knows some essential details, but the true nature of the transformation can only be understood once it occurs. Regret is rare in transformative experiences, as the individual values who they have become as a result. This understanding of transformative experiences raises questions about rational decision-making, empathy, future bias, and the relationship between past, present, and future selves.
Challenges of Rational Decision-Making
Rational decision-making is complicated by the subjective and emotional nature of human experiences. While rationality is often associated with detached and objective calculations, our decisions are influenced by our psychological biases, including future bias. Future bias leads us to prioritize present pleasures and pains and discount the significance of long-term outcomes for our future selves. This bias can result in decisions that neglect the long-term benefits of transformative experiences or the positive impact on our future selves. It highlights the challenge of reconciling objective calculations of value with our subjective psychological experiences.
Empathy, Information Access, and Cognitive Closure
Empathy plays a complex role in decision-making and understanding others. Affective empathy, feeling what others feel, can introduce cognitive biases. However, cognitive empathy, placing oneself in another's perspective, can lead to a better understanding of their beliefs and emotions. However, transformative experiences can challenge cognitive empathy, as they might involve a perspective that is too different for one to imagine accurately. This applies to beliefs about religion, conspiracy theories, and other deeply held convictions. Additionally, individuals may make decisions to protect themselves from certain information because they fear the potential impact on their thoughts or identities. This can create cognitive closure and limit exposure to ideas that may challenge one's preconceived notions.
The Value of Experience and Temporality
Our subjective experiences, both in the present and across time, significantly influence our decision-making processes. The value of an experience can differ depending on its temporal location. The future bias makes present situations seem more immediate and significant than future ones, leading to prioritizing immediate pleasures and neglecting the long-term consequences of our choices. However, experiences can have transformative effects, shaping our values and changing our perception of past events. The temporal asymmetry in how we perceive our experiences and value them has implications for decision-making, personal growth, and relationships with our past and future selves.
Sam Harris speaks with L.A. Paul about the nature of transformative experiences. They discuss how certain experiences change the self, the nature of regret, changing belief systems, conspiracy thinking, empathy, doing good in the world, our relationship to our future selves, changing our values, the nature of possibility, the ethics of punishment, moral luck, the moral landscape, consequentialism, and other topics.
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