(Ebook) What Matters in Survival: Personal Identity and other Possibilities by Douglas Ehring ISBN 9780192894717, 0192894714

(Ebook) What Matters in Survival: Personal Identity and other Possibilities by Douglas Ehring ISBN 9780192894717, 0192894714

This study is about what matters in survival--about what relation to a future individual gives you a reason for prudential concern for that individual. For common sense there is such a relation and it is identity, but according to Parfit common sense is wrong in this respect. Identity is notwhat matters in survival. In What Matters in Survival, Douglas Ehring argues that this Parfitian thesis does not go far enough. The result is the highly radical view “Survival Nihilism,” according to which nothing matters in survival. Although we generally have motivating reasons to have prudentialconcern, and perhaps even indirect normative reasons for such concerns there is no relation that gives you a basic, foundational normative reason for prudential concern. This view goes beyond what Parfit calls the "Extreme View." It is the "More Extreme View" and is in effect something like anerror theory about prudential reason as a special kind of normative reason.