PR 687: Giving Up

Article Data

Philosophical accounts of long‐term goals focus predominantly on the rationality of perseverance, examining when agents should persist despite evidence of failure. Arguably, these accounts consider that giving up is devoid of value. Conversely, this article argues that giving up has a different epistemic function: generating information about our capacities, passions, and suitable goals. I develop an exploratory account showing that through trial, failure, and goal abandonment, agents discover information about themselves that is unavailable through reflection alone. This exploratory value operates independently of whether giving up is rational: even when persistence might be rationally justified, giving up can be seen as a step toward self‐knowledge.