Self-control, Decision Theory, and Rationality
This post is written by José Luis Bermúdez , who is Professor of Philosophy and Samuel Rhea Gammon Professor of Liberal Arts at Texas A&M University . Prof. Bermúdez has published seven single-author books and six edited volumes. His research interests are at the intersection of philosophy, psychology and neuroscience, focusing particularly on self-consciousness and rationality. In this post, he presents his new edited collection " Self-Control, Decision Theory, and Rationality " published by Cambridge University Press. Is it rational to exercise self-control? Is it rational to get out of bed to go for a run, even when staying in bed seems preferable at the time? To resist the temptation to have another drink? Or to forego a second slice of cake? From a commonsense perspective, self-control is a way of avoiding weakness of will, and succumbing to weakness of will seems to be a paradigm of irrationality – something that involves a distinctive type of inconsistency and pr...