When is a goal rational?

Edvardsson, Karin; Hansson, Sven Ove

doi:10.1007/s00355-003-0309-8

Cited by 64 publications

(60 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…Realistic goals are sometimes contrasted to utopian goals, portraying future states of affairs that are either known to be impossible, or highly unlikely or uncertain to be achieved (cf. Edvardsson and Hansson 2005;Baard and Edvardsson Björnberg 2015).…”

Section: Realistic Goalsmentioning

confidence: 97%

Adaptive Ideals and Aspirational Goals: The Utopian Ideals and Realist Constraints of Climate Change Adaptation

Baard

2015

J Agric Environ Ethics

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There is a growing need to implement anticipatory climate change adaptation measures, particularly in vulnerable sectors, such as in agriculture. However, setting goals to adapt is wrought with several challenges. This paper discusses two sets of challenges to goals of anticipatory adaptation, of (1) empirical and (2) normative character. The first set of challenges concern issues such as the extent to which the climate will change, the local impacts of such changes, and available adaptive responses. In the second set of uncertainties are issues such as the distribution of burdens to enhance adaptive capacities in vulnerable agents with a legitimate claim to such resources, and what anticipatory adaptation ideally should result in. While previous discussions have been limited to either discuss the first or second set of uncertainties, this paper suggests that both dimensions should be considered when setting goals in social planning with long time frames. A taxonomy will be suggested that combines both dimensions. Furthermore, strategies for managing situations in which there are either empirical, or normative, uncertainties will be proposed which could be used in social decision-making with long planning time-frames in which goals must be set.

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Section: Realistic Goalsmentioning

confidence: 97%

Adaptive Ideals and Aspirational Goals: The Utopian Ideals and Realist Constraints of Climate Change Adaptation

Baard

2015

J Agric Environ Ethics

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“…Most goal-driven practical activities can gain a lot from a critical discussion of current or proposed goals, for instance in terms of how conducive the setting of a goal is to its attainment. There are various reasons why a goal can fail to achieve its intended purpose, and some of these reasons may be suffi cient to justify that we change or give up the goal (Edvardsson and Hansson 2005 ). However, largely due to the common oversimplifi cation just referred to, the philosophy of goal-setting rationality has as yet not attracted much attention among researchers, and many basic issues remain to investigate.…”

Section: Philosophy Of Endsmentioning

confidence: 98%

Technology as a Practical Art

Hansson

2016

Philosophy of Technology After the Empirical Turn

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The notion of practical arts goes back to antiquity. It covers what we today call technology but also many other types of activities, such as farming, manual crafts, cooking, housekeeping, sport activities, artistic work, and medicine. Interesting discussions on the practical arts can be found in medieval texts on knowledge classifi cation for instance by Hugh of Saint Victor and Robert Kilwardby, and also in Renaissance and Enlightenment literature. In this chapter it is argued that the philosophy of practical arts should be revitalized and that the philosophy of technology should have a major role when this is done. Many of the topics studied in the latter discipline have interesting extensions to practical arts in general. Some examples are the relationship between action knowledge and factual knowledge, the epistemological roles of actions, explanations in practical knowledge, and the role of functional terms and descriptions. The Empirical Turn in the Philosophy of Technology provides an excellent starting-point for widening the philosophy of technology to a general philosophy of the practical arts.

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“…However, in an ideal world he would certainly control himself and never even sit down on the driver's seat when he is drunk (if he is at all drunk in an ideal world). 3 Therefore, this obligation cannot be derived from information inherent in the ideal worlds. We derive it from our knowledge about subideal worlds, how they are related in terms of causality and human agency, and how we appraise them from a moral point of view.…”

Section: Fourth Argument: the Normative Relevance Of Subideal Worldsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ideal Worlds — Wishful Thinking in Deontic Logic

Hansson

2006

Stud Logica

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The ideal world semantics of standard deontic logic identifies our obligations with how we would act in an ideal world. However, to act as if one lived in an ideal world is bad moral advice, associated with wishful thinking rather than well-considered moral deliberation. Ideal world semantics gives rise to implausible logical principles, and the metaphysical arguments that have been put forward in its favour turn out to be based on a too limited view of truth-functional representation. It is argued that ideal world semantics should be given up in favour of other, more plausible uses of possible worlds for modelling normative subject-matter.

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When is a goal rational?

Cited by 64 publications

References 18 publications

Adaptive Ideals and Aspirational Goals: The Utopian Ideals and Realist Constraints of Climate Change Adaptation

Adaptive Ideals and Aspirational Goals: The Utopian Ideals and Realist Constraints of Climate Change Adaptation

Technology as a Practical Art

Ideal Worlds — Wishful Thinking in Deontic Logic

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