Plato and Davidson: Parts of the Soul and Weakness of Will

Abstract

One natural way of explaining the phenomenon ofakrasia, or weakness of will, would be this: to describe a conflict between a desire that is more or less rational (that represents, or corresponds to, a considered judgment on what is to be done), and a desire that is rather less rational, where the less rational desire wins out ‘against one’s better judgment.’ To explain what makes two such desiresconflictingdesires (as opposed to being just twodifferentdesires), it is then natural to suggest that they originate in distinct ‘parts of the soul’ (or in distinct ‘partitions of the mind’).