Self-Bias, Time-Bias, and the Metaphysics of Self and Time

Abstract

1: Self-Bias It is common to have a slightly exaggerated sense of the significance of your own joys and miseries, but grand self-importance is rare. Louis XIV was grandly selfimportant. He believed that, when he consumed too much foie gras, France suffered gastric pain. When he took satisfaction from the construction of a new fountain in the grounds of Versailles, that feeling would settle over his natural kingdom – from the frigid, poxy docks of Brest to the steaming, cholera-ridden slums of Marseilles. For Louis, self-indulgence was a national mission.