ABSTRACT
Chapter 5 builds upon the work of Chapter 4 by discussing potential psychological barriers to the development of an aspirational disposition. In particular, I examine three psychological forces that undermine projects of aspiration and three dispositions that imitate aspiration but are distinct from it. Because the dispositions that undermine aspiration—apathy, distraction and akrasia (weakness of will)—are often present in student psychology, I argue that it is important to be aware of the ways they can undermine the establishment of a meaningful connection to value in the learning environment. The same goes for the imitators of aspiration—hedging, ambition and obsession—which can pose as aspiration when they are actually preventing it from taking shape. As a contrast, I discuss a pre-aspirational state of responsiveness to value at the beginning of the chapter, which I characterize as an important precondition of aspiration. In describing each of these psychological dispositions, I intend not only to alert the reader to potential limitations or challenges of aspirational transformative education, but also to provide a more refined conception of what it means to aspire in an educational setting.
