Traditions, from cultural holidays to personal rituals, have a certain place in many of our lives. On regular occasions, we interrupt our normal priorities to follow the dictates of some tradition, often without being able to explain why—and we’re glad to do so. Can such a role be justified? I argue that traditions are well-positioned to help solve a problem in human life. On some level, a good life involves balancing different values. But values must compete for our attention, and miscellaneous…
Read moreTraditions, from cultural holidays to personal rituals, have a certain place in many of our lives. On regular occasions, we interrupt our normal priorities to follow the dictates of some tradition, often without being able to explain why—and we’re glad to do so. Can such a role be justified? I argue that traditions are well-positioned to help solve a problem in human life. On some level, a good life involves balancing different values. But values must compete for our attention, and miscellaneous attentional pulls can lead to a life misspent. As regularized and sticky occurrences that prescribe specific actions, traditions can guide us into new normative perspectives even at moments when we’re unable to see the perspective’s appeal. Thus traditions can preserve space for normative perspectives at risk of being neglected—helping ensure that all the values we care about get their due. Where prior accounts explain traditions in terms of interpersonal coordination, this account is intrapersonal, capturing a new range of cases and accounting for the particularities of traditions.
