Events

18 June 2010

The challenge of temptation: A defense of the instrumental rationality of resisting temptation

Seminar

By Soraya Gollop, Southern Methodist University, Texas.

In certain common cases of temptation, generated by hyperbolic discounting, to be tempted to do x is, ex hypothesi, for it to be the case that the desire that one is most motivated to act on is the desire to x. This is problematic for common instrumental accounts of rationality committed to three claims:

(1) The instrumental principle;
(2) a rational demand to act on your strongest motivation; and
(3) the immunity of intrinsic desires (ends) to rational criticism.

On such views it is instrumentally rational to act on the desire that one is most motivated to act on, and the strongest motivation is for that which is tempting, thus it is always instrumentally rational to give in to temptation. However if we do not resist temptation at least some of the time, then we cannot achieve long term goals in the face of a myriad of shorter term, less important, temptations. Moreover any plausible theory of rationality must be able to conclude that it is, in at least some cases, rational to resist temptation. This is the challenge of temptation. The challenge of temptation can be taken in two ways: as evidence that instrumental rationality is not all that there is to rationality; or it could be reason to modify one of these commitments so that giving into temptation will, at least in some cases, be irrational. I propose that the best response to the challenge of temptation is a modification of instrumentalism which holds that the desires involved in such temptations can be rationally criticized on the grounds of how they change in strength.

Philosophy

Organisation:

Department of Philosophy, University of Auckland.