Lunedì 16 aprile 2018 ore 15.00
Dipartimento di Lettere e Filosofia Università di Firenze
Action-initiation, self-control and the fragmentation of the mind
Bence Nanay
An important recent distinction in the empirical literature about
self-control is between resisting and avoiding temptations. While
we have some evidence that avoiding temptations is the more
efficient method of the two, philosophers have focused almost
exclusively on resisting temptations. The aim of this paper is to
examine what the ability to avoid temptations depends on and argue
that it depends primarily on how fragmented one's mind is: on the
inconsistencies in one's mental setup. The fragmentation of mind
requires a significant amount of mental effort to conceal from
oneself and this leads to a weakened ability to resist
temptations.