a book
Reasons and Persons
Derek Parfit · 1986 · 560 pages
Part 1 discusses ways in which theories about morality and rationality can be self-defeating and Part 2 the relations between what a single person can rationally want or do at different times, and what different people can rationally want or do. Parts 3 & 4 tackle personal identity and our obligations to future generations.
recommended by 6 people
sourced from public statements
Sam Harris
“I also recommend Derek Parfit’s book, “Reasons and Persons,” which is just brilliant and written as though by an alien intelligence. It’s a deeply strange book filled with thought experiments that bend your intuitions left and right.It’s just a truly strange and unique document and incredibly insightful about morality and questions of identity and well worth reading if you are of a philosophical cast of mind.”↗
Will MacAskill
“One of the most important books written in the 20th century.”↗
Peter Singer
“Parfit’s penetrating thought and spare prose make this one of the most exciting, if challenging, works by a contemporary philosopher.”↗
books like Reasons and Persons
other books recommended by the same people who recommend this one
Mortal Questions
Thomas Nagel
2 shared recommenders
Practical Ethics
Peter Singer
2 shared recommenders
On the Shortness of Life
Lucius Seneca
2 shared recommenders
Stumbling on Happiness
Daniel Todd Gilbert
2 shared recommenders
The Selfish Gene
Richard Dawkins
2 shared recommenders
The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations That Transform the World
David Deutsch
2 shared recommenders
The Precipice: Existential Risk and the Future of Humanity
Toby Ord
2 shared recommenders
Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies
Nick Bostrom
2 shared recommenders