The Significance of a Life’s Shape Article Swipe

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misfortune value (mathematics) accident (philosophy) drama rationality agency (philosophy) law psychology sociology psychoanalysis philosophy epistemology art political science literature mathematics statistics narrative

Dale Dorsey ·

YOU? · · 2015 · Open Access · · DOI: https://doi.org/10.1086/678373 · OA: W2087015136

The shape of a life hypothesis holds, very roughly, that lives are better when they have an upward, rather than downward, slope in terms of momentary well-being. This hypothesis is plausible and has been thought to cause problems for traditional principles of prudential value/rationality. In this article, I conduct an inquiry into the shape of a life hypothesis that addresses two crucial questions. The first question is: what is the most plausible underlying explanation of the significance of a life’s shape? The second question is: given its most plausible explanation, what does the shape of a life hypothesis teach us about the nature of prudential value?