Transformative Choices and the ‘As Judged by Themselves’-Criterion

Transformative Ethics. Preprint series vol.1. Working paper 2026:15

Abstract

One way to evaluate various interventions in people’s lives, including ‘nudges’, is to ask whether they make people better off, as judged by the people themselves. Paul and Sunstein (2019) show that this criterion does not provide determinate answers when the interventions are transformative choices. Pettigrew (2023) argues that there is a way to understand the criterion that provides both determinate and plausible answers. Pace Pettigrew, I shall argue that it is not easy to find a plausible version of the ‘as judged by themselves’-criterion, especially if it is supposed to be both ethically sound and usable for public decision-makers.