CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2012
| Author | Wagner, Zoltan |
|---|---|
| Title | Reflectivity, Caring and Agency |
| Summary | As a solution for the problem of free will and determinism, Harry G. Frankfurt developed his hierarchical theory of desires. This controversial theory led to fruitful debates not only in connection with the problem of free will but in other areas as well including personal and practical identity, rationality in action and the problem of agency in general. Thus, this dissertation is not focused on the problem of free will but on the role of second-order desires in agency. More particularly, it discusses the importance of two features of human agency that Frankfurt emphasized most. First, humans are reflective, that is, they can evaluate their own desires. Second, humans are capable of caring about things, that is, some things are important for them in a special way. Frankfurt understands both of these crucial abilities as based on our ability to have second-order desires. In agreement with Frankfurt, I will argue that both reflectivity and caring are very important and basic abilities, and that they are connected to each other. However, I will disagree about their relation and about the definition of caring as dependent on second-order desires. I will argue that caring in the most basic sense is not a reflective ability but a first-order evaluation which is centrally important to action. I will also try to show that the reason humans have second-order desires is that they care about things. Thus, our second-order desires should be based on our personal values; in other words, what we care about. As a consequence, the most important claim of this dissertation is the following: though humans are reflective creatures, it is not reflectivity that is the most important feature of human life. Rather, caring, as a first-order evaluation is more important and our ability to reflect about our motivation depends on being able to care about things in this sense. At the end of the dissertation I will briefly discuss a serious problem for any caring based theory of action: the problem of self-control and self-management. Since we do not directly control by decisions what we care about, it seems that we cannot have these abilities. However, I will try to sketch a method of self-control and self-management which is consistent with the importance of the redefined concept of caring and which is based on self-trust and openness. This method will add one more argument against the importance of reflectivity: second-order desires do not help us in managing our desires; rather, they can interfere with self-control and become self-defeating strategies. |
| Supervisor | Ferenc Huoranszi |
| Department | Philosophy PhD |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2012/fphwaz01.pdf |
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