transformative experience is a book and conceptconcept
In what is philosophy?, a concept is a creation (act of creativity) that testifies to the positive power of thinking as an event of life. philosophy creates concepts and puts th... developed by philosopher l.a. paul. It asks the question, when you are presented with the opportunity to transform into x, where x is a state of being with a completely different experience than your current state, what do you do?
First, some terms. An experience is epistemically transformative if you can only know what it's like if you try it (e.g. trying a new fruit, seeing a new color). It is personally transformative if it changes your point of view (e.g. taking a course, reading powerful fiction). We're thinking here about experiences that are both.
It is difficult to make a rational choice in this case because (a) you lack information, (b) your preferences would change afterward and (c) you're effectively reasoning about a different self. In other words, (a) what are the utilities, (b) which are the utilities, (c) which outcomes are relevant?
Empirically, it seems like changing into the new state tends to make people more satisfied.
Here are some notes on transformative experience.