180094 SE Transformative and Intertemporal Choice (2018W)

What to wear today? What to have for breakfast? Shall I ride the bike or take the tram? Life is full of choices, from the very first moment of every day. The choices just mentioned are quite trivial and don't change much in the long run. But other choices are weightier and much harder: For example, we have to choose what to study or work, where to live, whether to have children, and which religion, if any, to practice. We also have to make decisions in situations of moral dilemmas. These choices are often extremely difficult, and they can transform the deepest aspects of our identities. They also often have a long-term dimension, and form part of interlinked sequences of choices.

In this seminar, we study philosophical questions that arise from such "transformative" and "intertemporal" choices, and examine how they can pose challenges for models of rational choice as employed in economics. In particular, we focus on the work of the philosophers Ruth Chang and Laurie Paul, whose arguments are the most prominent in the contemporary philosophical debate on transformative choice. We will also read related economics literature. Students are not required to follow all mathematical formalisms presented in the economics literature, but should be willing to read somewhat technical texts to distill the key claims and findings, as intelligent "consumers" of economics research. Throughout the seminar, we will keep applying the theoretical arguments and claims to concrete decision situations.

At the end of the seminar, students will be able to :
- Explain and critically evaluate core arguments in contemporary philosophy and economics literature on transformative and intertemporal choice.
- Explain and critically evaluate how the philosophical arguments purport to challenge models of rational choice.
- Explain and critically evaluate how the related economics research bears on the philosophical problems.
- Formulate their own understanding of transformative and intertemporal choices.
- Apply the theoretical claims to real-life choice situations.

In preparation of each seminar, students will read the assigned core text and complete a short critical reading exercise on Moodle. The exercises are not part of the assessment. They are meant as a guide to studying the core texts and preparing for the assessment, and are a required part of active seminar attendance. Students should be prepared to briefly explain their exercise submission in class.

The seminar is taught in English.