Weakness of will and the measurement of freedom

Côté, Nicolas (2020) Weakness of will and the measurement of freedom. Ethics, 130 (3). pp. 384-414. ISSN 0014-1704

Text (707214) - Published Version Available under License Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial. Download (568kB)

Abstract

This article argues for a novel approach to the measurement of freedom of choice, on which the availability of an option is a matter of degree, rather than a bivalent matter of being either available or not. This approach is motivated by case studies involving weakness of will, where deficiencies in willpower seem to impair individual freedom by making certain alternatives much harder to pursue. This approach is perfectly general, however: its graded analysis of option availability can be extended to cases where weakness of will is not involved and can be used to generalize numerous existing measures of freedom.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	© 2020 by The University of Chicago.
Divisions:	Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method
Date Deposited:	08 Sep 2022 12:00
Last Modified:	30 Nov 2024 21:54
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/116466

Actions (login required)

View Item