ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author considers an example of Augustine's encounter with Platonism that he thinks illustrates his philosophical genius and originality. Motivations grounded in a non-rational part of the soul - appetite, say - considered just as such may be wholly alien to us, as the addict's and compulsive's motivations are. Platonism was wrong to think that partitioning the soul could account for the essential features of akrasia, but it was right to think that partitioning of some sort is necessary. Before turning to Augustine's text, the author want briefly to sketch a kind of general framework for thinking about psychological conflict that will help us see what is at stake in Augustine's account. Augustine's case in Confessions 8 seems to the author interesting precisely because it falls somewhere between cases of weakness of will and cases of addictive or compulsive behaviour.
