Abstract

There are numerous occasions on which a person's behavior is explained as the result of "weakness of will." Philosophers have found the phenomenon of weakness of will puzzling and often challenging in regard to the assumptions with which they understand action in general. Frequently these assumptions require that we conclude that there is no such thing as weakness of will or that something odd or unusual happens in weakness of will such that the standard conditions for action are not met. It is the aim of this thesis to account for weakness of will without relegating it to the category of the abnormal or defining it out of existence. ;A review of the philosophical literature is conducted to determine what the problem of weakness of will is. Several problems rather than a single one are identified and are shown to be related to the terms with which the respective philosophers approach the phenomenon to begin with. ;Through the consideration of a series of examples of weakness of will and related phenomena, it is suggested that an account of weakness of will which is adequate will do the following things. It will distinguish weakness of will from compulsion, imprudence or irrationality, and moral weakness; it will account for action in a way that does not make for paradox when cases of weakness of will are considered; and it will go some way in showing how weakness of will can be overcome. ;The notion of an agent's "sense of identity" is developed and it is reference to this notion that allows the distinction to be made between weakness of will and irrationality, moral weakness, and compulsion. An elucidation of the idea of a person's "experience of the world" is used to explain action in a way that makes weakness of will a natural occurrence. The two notions together are used to show how some techniques for overcoming weakness of will can work. It is concluded that since weakness of will serves to indicate a disintegrity in the person it can be of advantage to him, just as strength of will, when it is based on a compulsion, can be disadvantageous