Transformative experience and the shark problem
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Transformative experience and the shark problem Tim Campbell1
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Julia Mosquera1
Springer Nature B.V. 2020
Abstract In her ground-breaking and highly influential book Transformative Experience, L.A. Paul makes two claims: (1) one cannot evaluate and compare certain experiential outcomes (e.g. being a parent and being a non-parent) unless one can grasp what these outcomes are like; and (2) one can evaluate and compare certain intuitively horrible outcomes (e.g. being eaten alive by sharks) as bad and worse than certain other outcomes even if one cannot grasp what these intuitively horrible outcomes are like. We argue that the conjunction of these two claims leads to an implausible discontinuity in the evaluability of outcomes. One implication of positing such a discontinuity is that evaluative comparisons of outcomes will not be proportionally sensitive to variation in the underlying features of these outcomes. This puts pressure on Paul to abandon either (1) or (2). But (1) is central to her view and (2) is very hard to deny. We call this the Shark Problem. Keywords L.A. Paul Transformative experience Rational choice Subjective value The shark problem Spectrum Motherhood is more than I ever imagined. It’s more exciting and more terrifying; more rewarding and more draining; easier to figure out yet totally confusing; it’s a daily dose of the brand new and the mundane. —Stephanie Thomas, Mother. I’ve never felt fear in my life like what I felt in the jaws of that white pointer. I went straight into its mouth front onwards. —Eric Nerhus, Shark Attack Survivor. Tim Campbell and Julia Mosquera have contributed equally to this work. & Julia Mosquera [email protected] Tim Campbell [email protected] 1
Institute for Futures Studies, Holla¨ndargatan 13, Box 591, 101 31 Stockholm, Sweden
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T. Campbell, J. Mosquera
1 Parenting and shark attacks Many people at some point in their lives will have an experience that is radically different from any that they have had before. Possible examples include the experiences of becoming a parent, acquiring a new sensory ability, and tasting durian for the first time. L.A. Paul calls these radically new experiences ‘transformative experiences’ (Paul 2014: 15–18). The phenomenological content of a transformative experience is not merely unknown but inaccessible. To illustrate this, Paul considers Frank Jackson’s famous example of Mary The Scientist, who, while isolated in her black and white room, has never seen the colour red. Mary cannot grasp what it is like to see red, despite knowing all the relevant science (e.g. about wavelengths, etc.) without seeing red herself (Paul 2014: 9–10). According to Paul, experiential outcomes (e.g. an outcome in which one sees red; an outcome in which one is a parent, etc.) have a kind of value, what she calls ‘subjective value’ (Paul 2014: 12), that cannot be grasped by those who are unfamiliar with the precise phenomenology of the experiences that occur in those outcomes. Although obscure, the notion of subjective value
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