Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- PART I BREAKDOWNS OF WILL: THE PUZZLE OF AKRASIA
- Part II A BREAKDOWN OF THE WILL: THE COMPONENTS OF INTERTEMPORAL BARGAINING
- PART III THE ULTIMATE BREAKDOWN OF WILL: NOTHING FAILS LIKE SUCCESS
- 9 The Downside of Willpower
- 10 An Efficient Will Undermines Appetite
- 11 The Need to Maintain Appetite Eclipses the Will
- 12 Conclusions
- Notes
- References
- Name Index
- Subject Index
9 - The Downside of Willpower
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- PART I BREAKDOWNS OF WILL: THE PUZZLE OF AKRASIA
- Part II A BREAKDOWN OF THE WILL: THE COMPONENTS OF INTERTEMPORAL BARGAINING
- PART III THE ULTIMATE BREAKDOWN OF WILL: NOTHING FAILS LIKE SUCCESS
- 9 The Downside of Willpower
- 10 An Efficient Will Undermines Appetite
- 11 The Need to Maintain Appetite Eclipses the Will
- 12 Conclusions
- Notes
- References
- Name Index
- Subject Index
Summary
My mind seems to have become a kind of machine for grinding general laws out of large collections of facts, but why this should have caused the atrophy of that part of the brain alone, on which the higher tastes depend, I cannot conceive.
Darwin, RecollectionsIf your morals make you dreary, depend upon it they are wrong. I do not say “give them up,” for they may be all you have; but conceal them like a vice. …
Robert Louis Stevenson, A Christmas Sermon (Part II)All self-control devices can impair your reward-getting effectiveness: If you have yourself tied to a mast, you can't row; if you block attention or memory, you may miss vital information; and if you nip emotion in the bud, you'll become emotionally cold. Unfortunately, personal rules, which are the most powerful and flexible strategy against the effects of hyperbolic discounting, also have the greatest potential for harming your longest-range interests.
SIDE EFFECTS OF WILLPOWER
Suspicions of the will are fairly recent. Recognition of a will-like process that can oppose the promptings of impulse goes back to the classical Greeks, but until modern times it was regarded as an undiluted blessing. For example, Aristotle described not only passions that could overcome people suddenly, but also countervailing “dispositions.” These are forces that develop through consistent choice (habit) in one direction and subsequently impel further choice in that direction. He was clearly rooting for these dispositions to win out.
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- Information
- Breakdown of Will , pp. 143 - 160Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2001