I have been commissioned to complete an encyclopedia entry on transformative experience, and could use a little crowdsourced help. First, I could use some help filling out my working bibliography. Is there anything missing from my reference list that I should include? Please do feel free to let me know in the comments section below! Also, due to lack of institutional access, I have been unable to download the following papers. So, if you have a copy and wouldn't mind forwarding one to marvan@ut.edu, I would be very appreciative (I'll cross the relevant papers of the list if/when I obtain them).
- Briggs, R. (2015). Transformative Experience and Interpersonal Utility Comparisons. Res Philosophica 92 (2):189-216.
- Chang, R. (2015). Transformative Choices. Res Philosophica 92 (2):237-282.
- Dougherty, T.; Horowitz, S. & Sliwa, P. (2015). Expecting the Unexpected. Res Philosophica 92 (2):301-321
- Harman, E. (2015). Transformative Experiences and Reliance on Moral Testimony. Res Philosophica 92 (2):323-339.
- Kauppinen, A. (2015). What's So Great about Experience? Res Philosophica 92 (2):371-388.
- Paul, L. A. (2015). Transformative Choice: Discussion and Replies. Res Philosophica 92 (2):473-545.
Many thanks in advance to anyone and everyone who chimes in/helps out! :)
It drives me a bit crazy that this whole debate never bothers to look at the history of philosophy. I mean, Kierkegaard, Heidegger, existentialism, philosophy of religion writing about conversion experiences... - it’s as if they had never existed. And so much of literature is about people’s transformative experiences, especially, but not only, biographical and autobiographical writing! For an encyclopedia entry, it would be really nice to at least gesture to the fact that outside of Anglophone analytic philosophy, people have thought about transformative experiences before, even if they did not use that label.
Posted by: Lisa | 08/01/2018 at 02:23 AM
Hi Lisa: I was thinking about that just yesterday, and am glad you brought it up. I would love to locate the encyclopedia entry in a broader historical (and non-anglophone) context. If you or anyone else has suggestions for particular works I should look at, I’d be very appreciative!
Posted by: Marcus Arvan | 08/01/2018 at 08:51 AM
Following on Lisa's thought, clearly Sartre also writes on this sort of experience. Sartre notes that we are often making the most important choices in conditions in which we cannot know what we will become in light of our choice. Indeed, van Fraassen (2002) picks up on this and applies it to science in The Empirical Stance (page 151- ...). We neglect our history too often, and then rediscovery things.
Posted by: Brad | 08/01/2018 at 09:26 AM
I've got all of the Res Philosophica papers. I'll email them to you!
Posted by: Rosa | 08/01/2018 at 09:53 AM
Shameless self promotion: https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/WXpVuVBq87uHVCEIVPHm/full
Posted by: Mark | 08/01/2018 at 10:06 AM
Thanks so much, Rosa - received!
Posted by: Marcus Arvan | 08/01/2018 at 10:33 AM
Hi Mark: There's nothing wrong or shameless in my view with promoting your work. I'm sure you worked hard on it, and if it is relevant to the topic by all means draw attention to it. For my part, I wish philosophers were less averse to "shameless self promotion." Philosophy in my view would only benefit if we promoted works and discussion more than we do.
Posted by: Marcus Arvan | 08/01/2018 at 10:36 AM
A must is Sartre’s „Existentialism Is a Humanism“ (available e.g. here in English: https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/sartre/works/exist/sartre.htm). It has the example of a young man having to decide between fighting in a just war or caring for his aging mother, and the impossibility of choosing between these options on the bases of some ethical theory or other. As to Kierkegaard, the notion of „leap of faith“ is central.
This is not my field of expertise, and others might be better able to point you to specific passages.
Posted by: Lisa | 08/01/2018 at 03:34 PM
Self-promotion: Samuel Clark, 'Narrative, Self-Realization, and the Shape of a Life', Ethical Theory and Moral Practice 21(2018):371-385 makes some use of the idea of TE.
Posted by: Sam Clark | 08/05/2018 at 05:12 PM