Some of you guys have been a little down on philosophy articles lately. This article by Roy Sorensen appeared in Mind in 1997, and it is awesome, therefore all philosophy papers are awesome.
Published in Mind 106/424 (October 1997) 743
A CURE FOR INCONTINENCE!
Tired of being weak-willed? Do you want to end procrastination and back-sliding? Are you envious of those paragons of self-control who always do what they consider best?
Thanks to a breakthrough in therapeutic philosophy, you too can now close the gap between what you think you ought to do and what you actually do. Just send $1000 to the address below and you will never again succumb to temptation. This is a MONEY-BACK GUARANTEE. The first time you do something that you know to be irrational, your money will be refunded, no questions asked. Of course, you might nevertheless have some questions. How can you act incontinently when you know that the "irrational" act will earn you a $1000 refund? Well, that's what's revolutionary in this new cure for incontinence.
Old approaches focus on punishing the weak willed. This follows the antiquated behaviorist principle that negative reinforcement extinguishes bad behavior. The new humanitarian approach rewards incontinence -- and lavishly at that. The key is to make the reward so strongly motivating that an otherwise irrational act becomes rational.
Some may seek a refund on the grounds that the reward for incontinence played no role in their (apparently) incontinent act; although aware of the reward, they would have performed the act anyway. These folks should distinguish between actual and hypothetical incontinence. If you act in accordance with your judgement as to what is best overall, then you did nothing irrational.
True, the hypothetical incontinent act is a sign that you have a weak will. But the presence of this disposition gives you all the more reason to block its manifestation -- by sending $1000. Granted, there are people who cannot be swayed from temptation by a mere $1000. These recalcitrant individuals are advised to send in more than $1000. Give until it hurts.
Rush your cheque to:
Dr. Roy Sorensen
Department of Philosophy
New York University
503 Main Building
100 Washington Square East
New York, New York 10003-6688
(Note, address is not current)
If he's talking about impulse buying, this might actually work. You can't spend money if you don't have any left.
Before you respond: I do "get it" (the idea is to reward you for bad behaviors thereby changing your perspective on your bad behaviors) and I know this was posted in a journal (Some may trust people that they don't know posting in online journals with lots of money, but it's not impossible for spammers / hackers / con artists to post things in online journals that shouldn't be there, and also, you really should think twice before lending a person $1,000 even if they do legitimately post in a journal. For instance: The bank would check their credit score, not whether they publish articles in a journal. That's common sense.)
Additional responses that suggest the author may think that I am clueless or picks apart my simple joke will be ignored. Laugh or downvote as desired and move on!
Well, it would work for anything, if there's enough money (it doesn't matter if the money comes from you): the point is that an akratic action is an action where you evaluate a pair of options (say) such that the utility of A is higher than the utility of B, but nevertheless you do B.
Sorensen's solution is to refund your money if ever you choose B. But knowing that you'll be refunded, B now has a higher utility, so the action isn't akratic. It's like a paradox.