Weakness of Will from Plato to the Present

by Hoffmann, Tobias

• ISBN13: 9780813215204
• ISBN10: 081321520X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-03-01
• Publisher: Catholic Univ of Amer Pr

Summary

In thirteen original essays, eminent scholars of the history of philosophy and of contemporary philosophy examine weakness of will, or incontinencethe phenomenon of acting contrary to ones better judgment. The volume covers all major periods of western philosophy, from antiquity through the Middle Ages and the modern period down to the present.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. vii
Tobias Hoffmann, Introduction	p. ix
Weakness and Will in Plato's Republic	p. 1
Aristotle Reads the Protagoras	p. 22
Plotinus on Weakness of the Will: The Neoplatonic Synthesis	p. 42
Body Double: Saint Augustine and the Sexualized Will	p. 58
Thomas Aquinas on Weakness of the Will	p. 82
Henry of Ghent's Voluntarist Account of Weakness of Will	p. 115
Dante: Healing the Wounded Will	p. 138
Montaigne's Marvelous Weakness	p. 159
Descartes's Feeble Spirits	p. 175
Kant on Weakness of Will	p. 210
Nietzsche, the Will to Power, and the Weak Will	p. 231
A Libertarian View of Akratic Action	p. 252
Conflicts of Desire	p. 276
Bibliography	p. 293
Contributors	p. 309
Index of Names	p. 313
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