The Weight of The Past

Abstract

This chapter asks whether it is ever required or even permissible to give some weight to the values of your past selves. It argues that sometimes, when a past self has made a sacrifice that benefits the current self, it is at least permissible and sometimes required to give weight to the permissible values of that past self. To do this, the chapter introduces a principle descended from H. L. A. Hart’s (1955, ‘Are there any natural rights?’ Philosophical Review, 64) Principle of Mutual Restriction and John Rawls’s (1975, A Theory of Justice) Principle of Fairness.