R. Jay Wallace, “The View from Here: On Affirmation, Attachment, and the Limits of Regret” (Oxford University Press, 2013)
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What is the central problem of regret and affirmation that the episode introduces?
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Welcome to the New Books and Philosophy channel of the New Books Network. My name is Robert Talese. I'm professor of philosophy at Vanderbilt University. I co-host the channel with Carrie Figder. Carrie is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Iowa. Today, my guest is Professor R.J. Wallace. We'll be talking about his new book, The View From Here, on Affirmation, Attachment, and the Limits of Regret, which is newly published by Oxford University Press. J. Wallace is Professor of Philosophy at the University of California at Berkeley. Our moral lives are shot through with concerns about the past. Only a lucky few, if anyone at all, can escape nagging and persistent regrets about actions and decisions in our pasts.
But sometimes those very decisions that we now regret are the causal or conceptual antecedents of further outcomes that we now must affirm. That is, when we look back on our lives and we often find certain features of our past lamentable, even though, without those very features, something of value in our present would not be. How is this mixture of regret and affirmation to be understood? In The View From Here, J. Wallace explores the complicated phenomena concerning regret and affirmation. He develops a view that reconciles the apparent contradictions between regretting something that was a necessary antecedent to something that one must in the present affirm. But in laying out this reconciliation, Wallace uncovers a pervasive and deeply disconcerting truth about the human condition, namely that we must affirm aspects of our lives that are undeniably the products of highly objectionable features of the past—
The view from here is a thoroughly compelling and deeply intriguing work of moral philosophy. Let's turn to the interview. Hello, Jay Wallace. Hello. How are you doing today? I'm fine, thanks, Bob. Well, thank you so much for joining us on New Books and Philosophy.
You're welcome. Thanks for your interest in talking about my new book.
Well, wonderful. Today, folks, on New Books and Philosophy, my guest is R.J. Wallace, who has just published a book with Oxford University Press titled The View from Here on Affirmation, Attachment, and the Limits of Regret. This book explores the range of moral phenomena that attach to those retrospective assessments that we make of our own pasts. As its subtitle indicates, the book is centrally focused on interrelated questions concerning regret and affirmation. In particular, Wallace is concerned with cases in which it seems as if one must regret something in the past that is nonetheless causally or conceptually the antecedent of some subsequent outcome that we must affirm or have some positive affect towards.
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Chapters
4 chapters
1
What is the central problem of regret and affirmation that the episode introduces?
0:00–10:04
2
How does the interview begin and what is the purpose of the conversation?
10:04–13:18
3
What is R.J. Wallace’s personal and academic background and how does it shape his view?
13:18–23:27
4
How does Wallace define the relationship between regret, affirmation, and moral attachment?
23:27–1:02:03
Speakers
2 identifiedMore from New Books in Philosophy
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