4 ms·

How to Be Good: The Philosopher Derek Parfit (2011)

46 points by benbreen 7y ago

tunesmith 7y ago
“An act is wrong just when such acts are disallowed by some principle that is optimific, uniquely universally willable, and not reasonably rejectable.”
finm 7y ago
See also – https://sjbeard.weebly.com/parfit-bio.html https://sjbeard.weebly.com/parfit-bio.html > Derek Parfit was famously a fast and creative thinker. He used to advise students and colleagues to set up autocomplete shortcuts on MS Word for their most commonly used phrases to boost their productivity, unaware that very few other philosophers felt that their productivity was being restricted by their typing speed. Despite this, he published sparingly. He hated to commit himself to arguments unless he was certain of them. What he did produce however were numerous, and lengthy, drafts of papers and books (at least two of which never saw the light of day) that were widely circulated amongst the philosophical community and even more voluminous comments and responses to other philosophers on how they could improve their arguments. Likening Derek to an iceberg would be mistaken. Up to 10% of an iceberg is above the waterline, whereas I doubt if even 1% of Derek's work has ever been published. As one of his obituaries noted ‘When Derek Parfit published, it mattered!'
- lordgrenville 7y ago
  It's a great post. You probably also found it via Tyler Cowen's MR post. The whole piece is good, but my favourite part was his other excerpt: > “‘Like my cat, I often simply do what I want to do.’ This was the opening sentence of Derek Parfit’s philosophical masterpiece, Reasons and Persons… However, there was a problem. Derek did not, in fact, own a cat. Nor did he wish to become a cat owner, as he would rather spend his time taking photographs and doing philosophy. On the other hand, the sentence would clearly be better if it was true. To resolve this problem Derek drew up a legal agreement with his sister, who did own a cat, to the effect that he would take legal possession of the cat while she would continue living with it.”
- jfengel 7y ago
  That's funny. I hadn't realized that. And it must be part of the basis for the character Chidi on "The Good Place". He was also a moral philosophy professor, who produced thousands of pages of his magnum opus without ever reaching conclusions that satisfied him. (Parfit's work is referenced several times on the show.)
dlkf 7y ago
I remember reading this article the week it was published! I found the historical anecdotes about Parfit interesting, but I didn't become any more convinced of his ideas. The discussion of Bernard Williams and moral skepticism is particularly good.
dang 7y ago
A thread from 2016: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11273495 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11273495 Related from 2017, shortly after he died: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13304873 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13304873 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13315746 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13315746

46 points by benbreen 7y ago

“An act is wrong just when such acts are disallowed by some principle that is optimific, uniquely universally willable, and not reasonably rejectable.”

finm 7y ago

See also – https://sjbeard.weebly.com/parfit-bio.html https://sjbeard.weebly.com/parfit-bio.html > Derek Parfit was famously a fast and creative thinker. He used to advise students and colleagues to set up autocomplete shortcuts on MS Word for their most commonly used phrases to boost their productivity, unaware that very few other philosophers felt that their productivity was being restricted by their typing speed. Despite this, he published sparingly. He hated to commit himself to arguments unless he was certain of them. What he did produce however were numerous, and lengthy, drafts of papers and books (at least two of which never saw the light of day) that were widely circulated amongst the philosophical community and even more voluminous comments and responses to other philosophers on how they could improve their arguments. Likening Derek to an iceberg would be mistaken. Up to 10% of an iceberg is above the waterline, whereas I doubt if even 1% of Derek's work has ever been published. As one of his obituaries noted ‘When Derek Parfit published, it mattered!'

lordgrenville 7y ago
It's a great post. You probably also found it via Tyler Cowen's MR post. The whole piece is good, but my favourite part was his other excerpt: > “‘Like my cat, I often simply do what I want to do.’ This was the opening sentence of Derek Parfit’s philosophical masterpiece, Reasons and Persons… However, there was a problem. Derek did not, in fact, own a cat. Nor did he wish to become a cat owner, as he would rather spend his time taking photographs and doing philosophy. On the other hand, the sentence would clearly be better if it was true. To resolve this problem Derek drew up a legal agreement with his sister, who did own a cat, to the effect that he would take legal possession of the cat while she would continue living with it.”
jfengel 7y ago
That's funny. I hadn't realized that. And it must be part of the basis for the character Chidi on "The Good Place". He was also a moral philosophy professor, who produced thousands of pages of his magnum opus without ever reaching conclusions that satisfied him. (Parfit's work is referenced several times on the show.)

dlkf 7y ago

I remember reading this article the week it was published! I found the historical anecdotes about Parfit interesting, but I didn't become any more convinced of his ideas. The discussion of Bernard Williams and moral skepticism is particularly good.

dang 7y ago

A thread from 2016: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11273495 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11273495 Related from 2017, shortly after he died: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13304873 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13304873 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13315746 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13315746