| Description |
Long-term goals typically represent our deepest concerns and interests: they are our current life-size ambitions. Whereas instrumentalist theories of deliberation claim that the point of having them is achieving them, I argue that deliberation toward final ends operates primarily in the service of decision-making for present action. We use them to generate priorities in the here and now. Functioning in this capacity, having long-term goals is valuable regardless of whether we achieve or abandon them later. That's a good thing, because while it is rarely acknowledged in philosophical work, we typically abandon the large majority of long-term goals that we pursue at different periods of life. Embracing the idea that abandoning goals is not a practical failure, my proposal calls for a reassessment of practical commitment. It makes sense to give ourselves some slack between what practical rationality demands of us now and what happens later. I conclude that a proper account of practical rationality will require coming to terms with a more present-oriented picture of deliberation and agency. |
