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“Spectator to One's Own Life”

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 May 2024

MARK ROBERT TAYLOR*
Affiliation:
CALVIN UNIVERSITY markrtaylor8@gmail.com

Abstract

Galen Strawson (2004) has championed an influential argument against the view that a life is, or ought to be, understood as a kind of story with temporal extension. The weight of his argument rests on his self-report of his experience of life as lacking the form or temporal extension necessary for narrative. And though this argument has been widely accepted, I argue that it ought to have been rejected. On one hand, the hypothetical non-diachronic life Strawson proposes would likely be psychologically fragmented. On the other, it would certainly be morally diminished, for it would necessarily lack the capacity for integrity.

Type
Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of The American Philosophical Association

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