ABSTRACT

What in Anglo-Saxon philosophical circles is called the problem of weakness of will concerns what worried Socrates: the problem of how an agent can choose to take what they believe to be the worse course, overcome by passion. The English expression would not, or at least not primarily, bring this sort of case to mind, but rather such examples as dilatoriness, procrastination, lack of moral courage and failure to push plans through. The Greek word ‘akrasia’, on the other hand, means ‘lack of control’, and that certainly suggests the Socratic sort of example. I shall have something to say later about these other sorts of weakness. To begin with, however, I shall consider the problem as it has developed from Socrates.