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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.
| 7502 | For Stoics the true self is defined by what I can be master of [Stoic school, by Foucault] |
| 21421 | Within nature man is unimportant, but as moral person he is above any price [Kant] |
| 5647 | Hegel claims knowledge of self presupposes desire, and hence objects [Hegel, by Scruton] |
| 22770 | A person is a being which is aware of its own self-directed and free subjectivity [Hegel] |
| 15579 | My active existence is defined by being able to say 'I can' [Heidegger] |
| 3847 | Man is nothing else but the sum of his actions [Sartre] |
| 4020 | The modern self has disengaged reason, self-exploration, and personal commitment [Taylor,C] |
| 3825 | Action requires a self, even though perception doesn't [Searle] |
| 3797 | I am the sum total of what I directly control [Dennett] |
| 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] |