Breakdown of Will

by George Ainslie

Overview

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. This perspective helps us understand so much that is puzzling in human action and interaction: from self-defeating behaviors to willfulness, from pathological over-control and self-deception to subtler forms of behavior such as altruism, sadism, gambling, and the "social construction" of belief.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521593007
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	02/29/2008
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	5.98(w) x 8.98(h) x 0.75(d)
Lexile:	1470L (what's this?)

Table of Contents

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.

Editorial Reviews

"Breakdown of Will advances a novel position on motivation, the will, and the will's failures and successes." Alfred Mele, Department of Philosophy, Davidson College, North Carolina

"Breakdown of Will should interest many philosophers of pyschology...there are interesting and important ideas within the text, and it should spur fruitful philosophical discussion." Philosophy in Review

From the Publisher