The Many Futures of a Decision

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Combining two a central topics in philosophy in the 20th Century, this book considers the ethics and impact of decision-making alongside the philosophy of time. When we make simple decisions, like the decision to wake up at 8 a.m. tomorrow, we make use of a linear model of the future. But when we make open-ended decisions, like the decision to get fitter, or more involved in politics, we presuppose a much more complex model of the future. We project a variety of virtual futures. We can carry out a decision in many different ways at once, which may converge and diverge at different points in time. Using a phenomenological approach, The Many Futures of a Decision explores what we learn about the structure of the future specifically from decision-making. Most theories of decision concentrate on the rationality: the evidence and value assessments that build up grounds for a rational decision. Instead, this book innovatively engages with the nature of the future as a multi-layered decisions project. Through interpretations of the theories of decision in philosophers like Husserl and Heidegger, Schmitt and Habermas, Derrida and Deleuze, along with other decision theories, Lampert develops an original theory of multiple futures.

Reviews

Lampert also includes valuable counter-points to the continental tradition by including analytic philosophy and political thinkers from both sides of the political spectrum, such as Schmitt and Habermas. This is therefore a rich and rewarding book, as much for those interpretations as for the overall thesis. * Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews *
Jay Lampert has written a provocative book on the temporality of decisions. He intertwines the books innovative insight with a masterly and clear treatment of major continental and analytic thinkers as well as with discussions of temporal logic, decision theory, quantum physics, and the Chinese game of Go. Lampert also considers the vital implications of his thesis for ethical responsibility, especially for an age in which fundamentalisms strive to crowd out more judicious and imaginative thought. Its a must read for scholars and theoreticians working on the relation between decision and time and will be of great interest to those concerned more generally with contemporary continental philosophy. -- Fred Evans, Professor of Philosophy, Duquesne University, USA

Author Bio

Jay Lampert is Professor of Philosophy at Duquesne University, USA. His previous books include Simultaneity and Delay: A Dialectical Theory of Staggered Time (Continuum, 2012) and Deleuze and Guattaris Philosophy of History (Continuum, 2006).