ABSTRACT

Imagine you are Ulysses. You know that the songs of the Sirens are extremely beautiful as well as dangerously seductive, yielding to the temptation to join the Sirens being likely to prove fatal. Suppose that by contrast to the original story, you fail to get tied to the mast-you fail to bind yourself, to use Jon Elster’s expression (1977). Is it possible that in spite of your better judgment, you jump overboard to follow the Sirens? Suppose that it is freely and intentionally that you jump into the sea. You act freely in the sense that nothing forces you to act the way you do-it is not because you are pushed overboard by a gust of wind or compelled by a compulsive urge that you jump. And your action is intentional-for instance, you do not jump because you trip over a loose rope or because you are so confused as to think that jumping into the sea is the best way to escape the Sirens. Can it really be the case that at the same time as you jump, you really judge that you have decisive reasons not to join the Sirens, or that all things considered, it would be better-decisively better, in this instance-not to do so?