What is Weakness of Will? - Philosophy Tube

Can you do other than what you judge to be best? Questions abound about rationality, judgement and action.

Twitter: @PhilosopyTube

[WarpDoomer]

When you procrastinate so hard that you end up looking up the philosophy of your procrastination.

[pluspiping]

As someone who has multiple family members with ADHD... sometimes you just forget. Even people who don't have ADHD. Sometimes you want to do the thing, you mean to do the thing, but then you forget so you don't. That's not necessarily a weakness of will, or a decision that the thing you forgot about wasn't as important, but a consequence of living in a chaotic world that's absolutely full of stuff to think about.
Another thing I personally deal with is executive dysfuntion, where I REALLY WANT to do even simple things like, get up and get a glass of water or go to the bathroom, but I don't. I know I should. I want to. But I continue to sit there, frozen in place. For me, this is rooted in anxiety, because I used to live in a place where I'd get in trouble for being in the way. I'm not consciously deciding "I think I should sit still because staying safe is more important than going to the bathroom", but it WAS engraved into my unconscious reactions to existing in a house. It is taking a lot of practice and therapy to break through this, but I think I'm making progress.
I think philosophers should absolutely be doing a better job at incorporating things like neurodivergence and mental illness and trauma when they discuss their theories that they want to apply to everybody.

[zeroterry]

When concerning weakness of will, you have to understand the dilemma of best vs easy and the desire for immediate satisfaction. Deciding whether to go to the gym or to stay in and eat ice cream is muddled with many more than just those two options as the defining factor. Going to the gym entails doing quite a few things that could easily be deemed uncomfortable under normal circumstances; you have to get ready, then be in a hot room that is usually crowded and smelly, get get sweaty by exhausting your body, and then there is the socially awkward aspect of it; all in the hopes that eventually it will provide a positive outcome. While eating ice cream at home is considerably more pleasurable in the short term with ill effects in the long term if done too often.
 
Understanding the whole dilemma leads me to infer that weakness of will is not arational or even irrational. Deciding what is “best” is very subjective. I judge weakness of will the same way I judge weakness of body. A weak body isn’t one that can lift a heavy boulder but chooses not to, a weak body is one that simply cannot lift the boulder. A weak will is one that chooses to stay off of the “best” path because the “best” path is usually the same as the uncomfortable path.

[phoenixyn-kp]

What is guilt but the cognitive dissonance between actual values and perceived ideal values?

You don't feel guilty because you chose what you knew was the worse option; you feel guilty because you think you should have weighed the choices by different standards than you did.

You always choose the option that your brain calculates to have the greatest return. Guilt is being upset that the weights your brain relies on aren't what you would like them to be.

[DwalinDroden]

This discussion reminds me of a discussion about the under valuation of future persons. We generally assign judgment of what is best based on a balanced valuation of our future self (It would be best if I went for a jog because then I will be healthier and I will have enjoyed the fresh air), while we decide what action to take based on a decaying valuation of our future self, caring less about the long term benefits and more about the immediate benefits. Then a weakness of will is when this undervaluing of a future self changes our action. This makes the guilt a natural feature, since it is experienced by that future self which would have benefited by the more properly balanced evaluation.

[Mark]

I have thought about this topic, not knowing that it was one of philosophical discussion. I feel that weakness of will doesn't exist, you are going to make the best decision at any one time given 2 things, 1. your knowledge of the the possible consequences and 2. your access to resources.

thanks for the videos !

[uberpheonix]

Mr P. Tube,

Late 2019 fan here, and I can’t rectify the short hair with your contemporary style which is Shaggy-esque and infinitely superior

Sincerely, [redacted]

[tcironbear]

@Philosophy Tube Wow. I never realized that this was such a big issue in philosophy. My background is economics and we have a pretty satisfying answer to this. I assumed that philosophy did too since it so obvious

You see when making a choice nothing is certain. Like suppose you were deciding between eating a healthy and tasty salad (A), eating a burger (B), or eating from a candy vending machine (C). The benefit of A > B > C. You being logical choose A, just to discover the place that makes the salad is closed due to E coil. You now have no time the burger and have to choose the vending machine. Reality turned out that B > C > A.

And that is where anxiety and risk aversion comes in. No one has a choice between A, B, C. They face a choice between E(A), E(B), and E(C). And each one of these expected outcomes have wildly difference variance. So even if E(A) > E (B), the more variance E(A) has the more likely you are to pick E(B). To put in other words, exercising today MIGHT give me benefits tomorrow, but eating a sundae guarantees me a benefit today.

Another problem that arises is the disconnect between what people say they will sacrifice for and what they really will sacrifice for. This is because people realize their preferences could hurt their social status if made public. So even if a person thinks A > B > C, when the wise and respected philosophers say C > B > A, that person will confirm the philosophers' bias and then secretly go behind his back and do the opposite. To the philosopher it looks like weakness, but economist it was clear the person was lying about his tastes. What you sacrifice for is what you actually want, it is not what you say you want. Action trumps claims.

That said, I think if you want to evaluate weakness you need to look at the person's tastes in addition to their actions. I person has to make a choice based on their limited knowledge and it will always appear logical to them at the time they made the decision. But it was their tastes that placed the determined the multipliers in their decision making process. It is the evaluation of tastes that ultimately allow us to determine who is "weak" and it is the changing of tastes that change a person's mental fortitude.

[superpartes]

Thought about this question yesterday, funny how matching philosophy tube videos always turn up when I think about a question.

My conclusion was that "weak will" is the result of a conflict between short and long-term propositions. Since many of our most intense emotions, sensations and appetites (fear, anxiety, rage, desire, lust, hunger, pain, tiredness) are especially influential in the short term they can easily cloud the elaborate plans we had for the future just a few seconds ago.

This may not be as bad as we usually think it is, though. Sometimes resting and not fulfilling every single scheme we had for our life is what helps us survive and stay healthy, although it might be useful to gain a certain discipline in realizing complex projects over the course of one's existence.

[jogadorjnc]

Weakness of will is when people value what they are going to feel right away more than what they are going to feel after some time even though they know that what they are doing doesn't make sense.

[puddingball]

I think we have hardly even touched the subject of weakness of will. As I'm procrastinating right now, I would like to know more of it :)

Still, if I have to choose from the two options for next week, I'd go with aesthetics: what is beauty? We never went into that in highschool and I find it fascinating.

[puddingball]

people here are all so smart and insightful, I love this channel

[fraserg]

I think weakness of will stems from the two parts of the brain that evaluate gain from possible actions. One more recently evolved part evaluates long term gain (e.g. If I go for a run I'll get more healthy and so I'll be happier) and a much less recently evolved part evaluates short term gain (e.g. If I run my legs will hurt so I'll feel sad). What causes the weakness of will is the more recent but weak part of the brain being canceled out by our older and dumber strong part of the brain.

[LuiKang]

I think the degree to which moral factors over-ride equal consideration and desire is dependent on how much of a stronghold the moral factors have on the person's being. If the person believes that they could get away with a small shift from the "best course of action" without considerable repercussions, then they would do it. It is only if they have motivation with regards to negative/positive reinforcement that they are able to overcome any such barriers to their progress.

Essentially, all factors capable of influencing their behaviour need to be accounted for. If not with individual analysis, at least with sweeping statements that would give enough consolidation to move on through their journey.

For example: I can eat the ice-cream in the fridge.
Goal: Yeah but I need to loose weight.
Detractor: It's only a one-off; you're not gonna gain weight by eating one ice-cream.
Goal: Little drops make an ocean. I could do the same thing every time I have the fridge filled up.
Detractor: But the food will run out and so you can't trip up in the future.
Goal: But my brother will be pi**ed that I ate the last ice-cream. I don't wanna get into a fight again.
Detractor: Meh, just ignore him when it happens. Just fake guilt like in past times.
Goal: Okay. I can only eat a maximum of 2000 calories today. This ice-cream has a lot. I need to swap the chocolate biscuits with the rich tea then.
Detractor: Today can be the cheat day!
Goal: But I need to do something to burn off the stuff on cheat day. I can't trust myself in doing this myself. I will tell my gym buddy to pick me up.
Detractor: That sounds painful. I don't wanna do it.

*day for the gym comes*

Detractor: I'm too lazy. I will play on my gym buddy's apathy to keep myself shut in.
Goal: I can't always keep relying on people to fix my problems.

*watches documentary on obesity crisis and how people overcome the problem.*

Goal: Little drops make an ocean. I will swap my fatty dinner meal with less butter/smaller portion.
Detractor: I can't enjoy the food properly then.
Goal: I'm always distracted when eating. Let me try eating without distractions, just being mindful of eating.
Detractor: I'm quite satisfied. I'm okay even without the extra food.
Goal: What if I take away distractions from other things, like when listening to music, don't go to Facebook.
Detractor: That felt more engaging. I didn't know that this song had so many instruments and chords in it! I should do this again!

Personally, mindfulness has helped me a lot. The above is such an anecdote from my own experience.

[kevingordon]

Here's a monist objektion:
We all tend to see only our rational part our our consciousness as being truly us, while the rest is "only our body", or "only our brain". Because of that we call only some intentions will and others desires, urges or impulses, but there is actually no difference per se. They are all wills, the only true difference is the width or narrowness of their perspektive: Some refer to a longer or shorter timespan, some are selfish, while others take other people into consideration.

Most of us would think that the triumph of the wider perspektive also automatically means doing the morally right, but that is by no means always so. Heres a thought experiment, with Nazis, because every single one has to have them:

Imagine you are a Nazi soldier, but essntially a good guy. You just truly believe the ideologie and that it would make tzhe world a better place for everyone. But the first time your commanding officer orders you to kill a bunch of civilians, you can't brimg yourself to do it, because pity stayed your hand. That is also weakness of will. Or imagine that fearof death or lazyness made you run from the fight. Or imagine, you betrayed your side out of greed.

All of this proves that strength of will is a morally neutral tool.

[rkrkns]

I will be happy to hear your comments on my thoughts on the weakness of will:

Weakness of will is lack of consistency. At every instant, our brain evaluates every course of action, and makes a judgement on what is the "best" course. For example, we might decide "I'm going to go to the gym everyday, starting tomorrow". But then, , the brain may change its mind after some time on what the best course of action is. For example, we might get up in the morning the next day and decide "eating ice cream is more fun, and jogging takes too much effort. I change my mind - I don't want to go jogging today."  

In the above example, we have the brain judging that jogging is the best course of action at one point of time, and then rejecting that idea at another point of time. This is inconsistent, and that is what is weakness of will.

If our brain makes consistent judgments by and large on most occasions, then there is no weakness of will. For example, if a drug addict never considers quitting, and doesn't ever try to quit, he isn't really being weak-willed when he does drugs as he never had the will to quit it in the first place.

So what do you think?

[AnimaVisionary]

Man, a lot of these earlier videos are hard for my ADHD brain to follow. I'm wondering how many modern philosophers take into consideration of mental disorders like ADHD into consideration when thinking about the weakness of will.

[IliyanBobev]

Weakness of will is choosing immediate reward over a greater one in the future. Will is a resource that can be exhausted. The ability to postpone reward is based on the ability to forecast the future. We realize that the future is uncertain, so we always have to put some faith into it. When we over-invest in a prediction, we have to allow ourselves some immediate reward, to compensate.

[AbhijeetBorkar]

I vote for "is beauty in the eye of beholder"

[alex]

This is because we write a an internal narrative for ourselves (drawn from external sources) which means we can let ourselves down. And we are social creatures so we naturally consider the points of view of other people, and rely on each other, so we can let other people down.
It takes energy and necessitates physical and social risk taking to reach a stage where we fulfill our internal narrative and even more if we're trying to not let anyone down. Will comes in when you are trying to force the lazy ape body you live in to expend the energy and take the risks necessary to avoid letting ourselves and other people down. Expending energy and risk taking are both activities which our reptile brain has strong disincentive to do. What we call 'will' is the ability of our fore-brain to triumph over our reptile brain. Someone who is strong willed does this easily, someone who is weak willed finds it hard.
It can be changed by practice.