ABSTRACT
The ethical discovery that the passions often lead us astray, but can be reined in by virtue, is parallel to the epistemological discovery that we have been credulous, but might be able to do better. The parallelism exemplifies an important relation between what ought to be and what is. In this chapter and the next, I shall seek to illustrate a general structural affinity between the very special equipment that Descartes thinks we have for controlling assent – and therefore our tendency to credulity – and what many moralists have thought is the controlling factor in all genuinely human action. This is the will.
