Akrasia, Explanation, and a Rationalist Trojan Horse
Colloquium
Speaker: Michael Della Rocca, Yale University
Start: May 02, 2025 - 03:30pm
Where: MITCH 102
Description:
In this paper, I will explore whether weakness of will or, as I think it is better called, akrasia is possible. I will argue that all accounts that accept the possibility of akrasia sever the link between evaluation of an action as best and one's motivating desires. Such severing is, I will argue on largely rationalist grounds, unintelligible. I will then go out of my way to be generous: I will offer my opponent a powerful and seemingly promising response in the spirit of rationalism to my argument against the possibility of akrasia. However, this "gift" to my opponents surprisingly turns out to be something of a Trojan horse because, far from shoring up the possibility of akrasia, this response to my argument only threatens to cast into doubt or worse not only akrasia, but also the possibility of reasons for action in general and the coherence of the notion of normativity. The paper ends with some observations as to what this new understanding of action without reasons for action and without normativity might look like.