About the book
Derek Parfit's 1984 work of philosophy takes up ethics, rationality and personal identity in four parts, covering self-defeating moral theories, rationality over time, personal identity and obligations to future generations. He argues that some ethical views, ethical egoism among them, defeat themselves, citing the prisoner's dilemma, and he challenges self-interest theory from the side of morality and from what he calls present-aim theory. In the third part he defends a reductive view of personal identity: using thought experiments such as a teletransporter that copies a person onto Mars and the fission of persons, Parfit concludes that no further fact makes someone the same person, and that what matters is psychological connectedness, which he calls Relation R.
Sam Harris described it as a deeply strange work whose thought experiments pull intuitions in every direction and which offers rare insight into morality and identity, and Mark Manson called it a difficult read that many count among the most important psychological works of the late 20th century.
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This book has 2 recommendations
Mark Manson (Author)
A difficult read and a total mind-fuck. Through painstaking logic, Parfit shows that: acting in self-interest is impossible, personhood does not exist, and pretty much anything you do is evil. This is considered by many to be the most important psychological work of the later 20th century.
Brilliant and written as though by an alien intelligence. A deeply strange book filled with thought experiments that bend your intuitions left and right. A truly strange and unique document, and incredibly insightful about morality and questions of identity.
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