Publication of Agir contre soi. The weakness of will by Jon Elster
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Jon Elster

Acting against yourself. Weakness of will

" I see the good, I approve of it, and I do the evil," says Medea in Ovid. "I don't do the good I want to do, while I do the evil I don't want to do", laments St. Paul in his Epistle to the Romans. Two famous expressions of what we might call "weakness of will".

Why, despite everything I know about the harmful effects of tobacco, do I continue to smoke? Why, despite their effect on crime, do some countries still allow arms sales? These are modern examples of this akrasia. How is it possible? What does it imply? And above all, how can we overcome it?
Based on a classic problem - the possibility of knowing evil - Jon Elster deploys all the finesse and power of contemporary philosophical tools to offer a complete picture of the factors explaining this "weakness of will", as well as the strategies that individuals and institutions implement to remedy it. Ulysses tied himself to the mast of his ship to resist temptation; can institutions? "

Elster J., Agir contre soi. La faiblesse de volonté, Paris, Odile Jacob, coll. "Travaux du Collège de France", June 2007, 160 p.

ISBN : 978-2-738-11965-0
Publication  : June 7, 2007

Jon Elster taught sociology at the University of Paris-VIII, then philosophy and history at the University of Oslo, before becoming a professor at the University of Chicago, then Columbia University. He is now Professor at the Collège de France. His books include Le Laboureur et ses enfants, Karl Marx: une interprétation analytique and Psychologie politique.