I read this last night before going to bed and could not wait to respond on the weakness of will. Or I guess in some sense willpower. Between what one wants to will oneself to do v. what they actually end up doing. Now in your example of unhealthy food and healthy food. We know we ought to eat healthy but when we choose the unhealthy option there is immediate guilt. I should have had a better lunch than this, why do I suffer from a weakness of will. But if I willingly choose to eat unhealthy and I am happy/satisfied with that decision then that would not be considered a weakness of will. I think we can define a weakness of will when we regret, feel guilty, or are angry at our selves from "lacking" control.
There’s a general challenge to accounts that include backward looking components like regret. It seems like whether something is weak or not is an attribute of the act at the time of the act. You could later change your mind, misremember, or become a better person. But none of that seems able to make a previous act weak. It may be a SIGN all the time, but being constitutive of weakness is different from being indicative of weakness.
Correct me if I am wrong, I think you're talking about the nature of regret and how it interacts with our judgment of past actions. Questioning whether our current feelings (regret) can really alter or redefine the moral quality of what we've done in the past. And I totally get the concern that regret is more of a reflection. Kind of framing as in the moment.
btw you philosophize like a textbook lol makes sense though cause you're a prof
Yes! That's what I mean. You're not alone in wondering about that sort of view though. Aristotle seems to take that position. It's early on in the Nicomachean Ethics, I think. I can hunt it down for you if you want to read what he has to say.
I read this last night before going to bed and could not wait to respond on the weakness of will. Or I guess in some sense willpower. Between what one wants to will oneself to do v. what they actually end up doing. Now in your example of unhealthy food and healthy food. We know we ought to eat healthy but when we choose the unhealthy option there is immediate guilt. I should have had a better lunch than this, why do I suffer from a weakness of will. But if I willingly choose to eat unhealthy and I am happy/satisfied with that decision then that would not be considered a weakness of will. I think we can define a weakness of will when we regret, feel guilty, or are angry at our selves from "lacking" control.
There’s a general challenge to accounts that include backward looking components like regret. It seems like whether something is weak or not is an attribute of the act at the time of the act. You could later change your mind, misremember, or become a better person. But none of that seems able to make a previous act weak. It may be a SIGN all the time, but being constitutive of weakness is different from being indicative of weakness.
Correct me if I am wrong, I think you're talking about the nature of regret and how it interacts with our judgment of past actions. Questioning whether our current feelings (regret) can really alter or redefine the moral quality of what we've done in the past. And I totally get the concern that regret is more of a reflection. Kind of framing as in the moment.
btw you philosophize like a textbook lol makes sense though cause you're a prof
Yes! That's what I mean. You're not alone in wondering about that sort of view though. Aristotle seems to take that position. It's early on in the Nicomachean Ethics, I think. I can hunt it down for you if you want to read what he has to say.
I'll take that as a compliment :)