PPIG: Philosophy, Psychology, and Informatics Group
Presenter: Erica Consentino (University of Bochum)
Title: Self-control, mental time travel and the temporally extended self
Abstract: Intertemporal choice scenarios are scenarios in which someone has to make a choice whose consequences play out over time. In those scenarios, the capacity to exercise self-control involves making a choice that does not provide an immediate advantage for the present self, and delivers instead a benefit for the future self. I argue that the extent to which one can resist temptation in those scenarios is a function of the extent to which one cares about one’s future self. Caring about one’s future self entails having a temporally extended self. Given that mental time travel is crucially involved in the coming about of the temporally extended self, I acknowledge its importance in self-control. After clarifying what my hypothesis does not imply about the relation between mental time travel and self-control, I discuss two puzzles concerning the phenomenology of resisting temptation and, respectively, the explanatory power of the temporally extended self and I suggest a possible solution.
Further information
We are a group of researchers from diverse backgrounds in the above-mentioned groups (and beyond) who aim to gain an interdisciplinary yet deep understanding of the threads that bind the human mind and the world. In particular, this seminar series focuses on the nature of cognition, metacognition and social cognition. We’ll be tackling questions such as, what does it mean to think? What does it mean to think about thinking? And, what does it mean to think about one’s own thinking versus thinking about the thinking of other people? Please come along!
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Contact details
PPIG: Philosophy, Psychology, and Informatics Group
Room 12 (Doorway 3), Medical School (Old Medical School), Teviot Place, Edinburgh, EH8 9AG