This project aspires to inquire into the normativity of pre-commitment devices – strategies that make it costly or impossible to fall prey to temptation by restricting the set of available options. More specifically, it is interested in whether the employment of pre-commitment devices can help solve so-called collective action problems and self-destructive behaviours. It does so by, first, providing a conceptualization of pre-commitment devices and the different types of pre-commitment devices available to the individual. Second, it inquiries into the normativity of pre-commitment devices at three different levels: micro, meso, and macro. At the micro level, it investigates whether individuals should employ pre-commitment devices (and which ones) to direct and steer their individual behaviours. It highlights the benefits and drawbacks of employing these devices from the perspective of morality and rationality. At the meso level, it investigates the normativity of pre-commitment devices in interpersonal settings. That is, it inquires whether it is permissible (and desirable) to use pre-commitment devices between individuals to direct a person’s behaviour in a way that possibly solves or at least diminishes the disastrous outcomes of self-destructive behaviours and collective action problems. Lastly, the project aims to build on the insights acquired from the analysis carried out at the micro and meso level to analyse the macro level. That is, it aims to evaluate whether it is desirable to use pre-commitment devices (and which ones) in institutional settings.

Postdoc

Dr. A Costella

0000-0001-8075-4651

- other

• Ethics

• Synthesis

• Identity flexibility and sustainable cooperation

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n/a