ArticleSynthese2021
A rational route to transformative decisions.
Article in Synthese, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
4 citing papers in PubMed.
- AI-assisted rational decision-making.Synthese · 2026Article
- Breaking Up Rationally.The journal of ethics · 2025Article
- Giving Consent to the Ineffable.Neuroethics · 2024Article
- Rational transformative decision-making.Synthese · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
1 author.
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Abstract
According to Paul (Transformative experience, 1st edn, Oxford University Press, 2014), transformative experiences pose a challenge to decision theory since their value cannot be anticipated. Building on Pettigrew's (in: Lambert, Schwenkler (eds) Becoming someone new: essays on transformative experience, choice, and change, Oxford University Press, pp 100-121, 2020) redescription, this paper presents a new approach to how and when transformative decisions can nevertheless be made rationally. Thanks to fundamental higher-order facts that apply to any kind of experience, an agent always at least knows the general shape of the utility space. This in combination with the knowledge about the non-transformative alternative in the choice set can enable rational decision-making despite the presence of a transformative experience. For example, this paper's approach provides novel arguments for why gender transition (cf. McKinnon in Res Philosophica 92(2):419-440, 2015) or staying childfree (cf. Barnes in Philos Phenomenol Res 91(3):775-786, 2015) can be rational.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.