Describing Weakness of Will

Abstract

AbstractCombining the philosophical and the scientific perspective, this chapter suggests a new way of describing weak-willed delay discounting. On this view, weak-willed action is, roughly, due to how the agent responds to the uncertainty about whether or when an anticipated good materializes. At least three reasons weigh in favour of this view: intuitively, the temporal delay of a future benefit, such as better health thanks to dieting, always involves a risk of not obtaining this benefit. In a similar vein, many authors have pointed out similarities of probability and delay discounting. Probability discounting is the reduction of value due to probability. Lastly, there is an empirical connection between probability and delay discounting. For example, risk-seeking individuals are more patient, and vice versa.