gworley comments on Silver Chairs, Paternalism, and Akrasia - Less Wrong

36 Post author: dclayh 09 April 2009 09:24PM

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Comment author: gworley 10 April 2009 09:20:09PM 1 point [-]

This is a very interesting post and regardless of any errors some may feel it has, I think it has the right idea. One of the problems with attributing failure to akrasia is that it doesn't always feel like you would have made the right choice if you had will power. For an example from my own life, sometimes rather than working on things that I do want to work on, I play video games, often rationalizing to myself that I just don't have the mental energy to do the work. But, really, it's more that I want to play the games, maybe more than do the work, than that I failed to have the will power to do the work (although I wish I had had the will power to overcome my desire to play the games and do the work).

You've definitely given us more precise language to use when discussing "failures" of will power.