Breakdown of Will

Argues that our responses to the threat of our own inconsistency determine the fabric of human culture.

George Ainslie (Author)

9780521593007, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 19 March 2001

272 pages, 17 b/w illus.
23.6 x 16 x 2.3 cm, 0.485 kg

'This book is definitely worth reading and food for thought. It raises and sheds light on difficult issues that should be of interest to anybody concerned with human behaviour …' Practical Philosophy

Ainslie argues that our responses to the threat of our own inconsistency determine the basic fabric of human culture. He suggests that individuals are more like populations of bargaining agents than like the hierarchical command structures envisaged by cognitive psychologists. The forces that create and constrain these populations help us understand so much that is puzzling in human action and interaction: from addictions and other self-defeating behaviors to the experience of willfulness, from pathological over-control and self-deception to subtler forms of behavior such as altruism, sadism, gambling, and the 'social construction' of belief. This book integrates approaches from experimental psychology, philosophy of mind, microeconomics, and decision science to present one of the most profound and expert accounts of human irrationality available. It will be of great interest to philosophers and an important resource for professionals and students in psychology, economics and political science.

Preface
Part I. Breakdowns of Will: The Puzzle of Akrasia: 1. Introduction
2. The dichotomy at the root of decision science: do we make choices by destres or by judgments?
3. The warp in how we evaluate the future
4. The warp can create involuntary behaviors: pains, hungers, emotions
Part II. A Breakdown of the Will: The Components of Intertemporal Bargaining: 5. The elementary interaction of interests
6. Sophisticated bargaining among internal interests
7. The subjective experience of intertemporal bargaining
8. Getting evidence about a nonlinear motivational system
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
Indexes.

Subject Areas: Economic theory & philosophy [KCA], Political science & theory [JPA], Psychological theory & schools of thought [JMA], Philosophy of mind [HPM]