tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3891434218564545511.post2173978466280312765..comments2024-03-28T19:56:42.305-05:00Comments on Alexander Pruss's Blog: Procreation and loveAlexander R Prusshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05989277655934827117noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3891434218564545511.post-24116768756267077392016-01-18T09:54:28.245-06:002016-01-18T09:54:28.245-06:00Maybe, but there is a possible difficulty then. Pl...Maybe, but there is a possible difficulty then. Plausibly, when they are deciding whether to procreate, they don't have a settled opinion on whether there will be a future child or not. If anybody will ever prove the Riemann Conjecture, there will be a first person who will prove it. But I have no settled opinion on whether anyone will prove the Riemann Conjecture. Can I have a love for the first person to prove the Riemann Conjecture, under that description, when I have no settled opinion on whether that person <br />I think the possible difficulty is not so fatal, though, to your suggestion. First, it is possible that a couple is deciding whether to procreate but already has a settled opinion that they will procreate. That sounds weird, but they can say: "We know that couples like us do eventually decide to procreate, and we are probably fertile, so probably we will procreate." We do in fact deliberate in cases where we know ahead of time how the decision will go, and a theory of decision-making that doesn't allow for this possibility is empirically refuted. <br />Second, it may be possible to love one's child without having a settled opinion on whether the child exists. Take the case of a woman who thinks she may well be pregnant but doesn't have enough evidence for a settled opinion.Alexander R Prusshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05989277655934827117noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3891434218564545511.post-27385961749489039622016-01-17T12:22:31.002-06:002016-01-17T12:22:31.002-06:00Could a couple procreate out of love for 'our ...Could a couple procreate out of love for 'our future child' or 'whatever child will be conceived by this act of procreation'? If so, would it turn out that whichever child ended up being conceived, that was the particular child out of love for whom the couple had procreated?<br /><br />By comparison, a single man might pray for 'my future wife' to be blessed, without knowing which woman was his future wife. But it seems that his prayer would end up be applied to some particular woman.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06251565524682589544noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3891434218564545511.post-73332577344175732322016-01-16T22:30:28.169-06:002016-01-16T22:30:28.169-06:00It allows for an elegant account of transworld ide...It allows for an elegant account of transworld identity: sameness of origins iff sameness of individual.Alexander R Prusshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05989277655934827117noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3891434218564545511.post-47599879031955701472016-01-16T12:00:21.415-06:002016-01-16T12:00:21.415-06:00I accept the converse to the essentiality of origi...<i>I accept the converse to the essentiality of origins</i><br />And for what reason?Jakub Moravčíkhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03543628674375672591noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3891434218564545511.post-73810027578150643142016-01-15T14:27:52.983-06:002016-01-15T14:27:52.983-06:00I think there are ways of formulating my claim tha...I think there are ways of formulating my claim that don't imply that.<br /><br />The simplest is:<br />1. There is a haecceity H such that if the couple procreated, their child would be an instance of H.<br /><br />(I accept the converse to the essentiality of origins, so the initial state and causal history of an individual fixes the person. Thus, this haecceity could just be the initial state and causal history.)<br /><br />A particularly complex version is:<br />2. Were the couple to procreate, there would be a child x such that (were they not to have procreated, it would have been the case that (were they to have procreated, they would have x as a child)).Alexander R Prusshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05989277655934827117noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3891434218564545511.post-9410992534666019162016-01-15T14:20:11.154-06:002016-01-15T14:20:11.154-06:00there is a particular someone who would exist if t...<i>there is a particular someone who would exist if the couple procreated</i><br /><br />Does it mean that you believe that there are ontologically possible people who never come into actual existence? And that it´s not the case that all ontologically non-actual people are purely fictional people?Jakub Moravčíkhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03543628674375672591noreply@blogger.com