Agnes Callard concept of making change through value shifts, contrasting ambition of making change through goals and acquisitions
We “aspire” to self-transformation by trying on the values that we hope one day to possess.
An ambitious agent’s behavior is directed at a form of success whose value she is fully capable of grasping in advance of achieving it.
Aspirants are characteristically needy people, since (they see that) their own conceptions of value are insufficient. Their group of supporters includes, but is not limited to, people who may have a better grip than they on the particular values and reasons of the person they want to become. They also rely more generally on the kindness or empathy or material assistance of those who love them, since they tend to make mistakes, to need help, to not know exactly what they are doing.