Aspiration: The Agency of Becoming

A work of philosophy of action about how people come to care about things they do not yet value. Callard calls this process aspiration: the rational, purposive work of acquiring new values, as when someone sets out to appreciate classical music, become a parent or take up a new vocation. Standard theories of decision struggle here, because they assume an agent's values are already fixed, and treat transformative choices as leaps of faith or luck. Her answer is that aspirants act on 'proleptic reasons': reasons that anticipate a grasp of value they will only fully have later, so that their present understanding is partial and borrowed, in a sense, from the person they hope to become. This explains familiar features of learning, such as seeking out mentors to emulate and pretending, even to oneself, to enjoy what one does not yet enjoy. It also explains how we can be responsible for becoming who we are.

It offers a new account of how people change their own values, with clear lessons for anyone learning a craft, teaching others or trying to become a different kind of person.