Okay, so one thing I actually want here is for Stuart to clarify what he means by “values.” One thing you might mean by a person’s values changing as they get older is something like, I used to value eating as much ice cream as possible, and now I value reading books, or something. But this is pretty far on the instrumental side of instrumental vs. terminal values. One thing you might mean by a person’s values staying the same as they get older, more in the terminal values direction, is something like, I used to value having fun and now I still value having fun.
Instrumental values can change all the time in response to learning more about how the world works and what sorts of strategies do or do not get you your terminal values, but that’s orthogonal to the question of whether your terminal values are drifting (to the extent that it even makes sense to ask this question of a human) and whether that’s good or not.
Okay, so one thing I actually want here is for Stuart to clarify what he means by “values.” One thing you might mean by a person’s values changing as they get older is something like, I used to value eating as much ice cream as possible, and now I value reading books, or something. But this is pretty far on the instrumental side of instrumental vs. terminal values. One thing you might mean by a person’s values staying the same as they get older, more in the terminal values direction, is something like, I used to value having fun and now I still value having fun.
Instrumental values can change all the time in response to learning more about how the world works and what sorts of strategies do or do not get you your terminal values, but that’s orthogonal to the question of whether your terminal values are drifting (to the extent that it even makes sense to ask this question of a human) and whether that’s good or not.