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Full Idea
In forming a particular plan of life, you need to identify with your future in order to be what you are even now. When the person is viewed as an agent, no clear content can be given to the idea of a merely present self.
Gist of Idea
A person viewed as an agent makes no sense without its own future
Source
Christine M. Korsgaard (Intro to 'Creating the Kingdom of Ends' [1996], §2)
Book Ref
Korsgaard,Christine M.: 'Creating the Kingdom of Ends' [CUP 1996], p.372
A Reaction
I certainly like the notion that we should treat persons primarily as agents, since I take personhood to be more like a process than an existent entity. If a large brick is about to hit you, you actually have no future, though you think you have.
| 18233 | Contemplation is final because it is an activity which is not a process [Korsgaard] |
| 18226 | For Aristotle, contemplation consists purely of understanding [Korsgaard] |
| 18228 | An end can't be an ultimate value just because it is useless! [Korsgaard] |
| 18225 | If we can't reason about value, we can reason about the unconditional source of value [Korsgaard] |
| 18224 | Goodness is given either by a psychological state, or the attribution of a property [Korsgaard] |
| 18678 | Maybe final value rests on the extrinsic property of being valued by a rational agent [Korsgaard, by Orsi] |
| 9758 | To make sense of personal identity, focus on agency rather than experience [Korsgaard] |
| 9757 | A person viewed as an agent makes no sense without its own future [Korsgaard] |
| 9759 | Theory of action focuses on explanation and prediction; practical action on justification and choice [Korsgaard] |
| 9761 | Personal concern for one's own self widens out into concern for the impersonal [Korsgaard] |
| 9760 | Self-concern may be a source of pain, or a lack of self-respect, or a failure of responsibility [Korsgaard] |