Against Better Judgment

Nyhet

Akrasia in Anthropological Perspectives

Häftad, Engelska, 2026

Av Patrick McKearney, Nicholas H. A. Evans, Nicholas H. a. Evans, Nicholas H A Evans

719 kr

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Anthropologists have long explained social behaviour as if people always do what they think is best. But what if most of these explanations only work because they are premised upon ignoring what philosophers call 'akrasia' – that is, the possibility that people might act against their better judgment? The contributors to this volume turn an ethnographic lens upon situations in which people seem to act out of line with what they judge, desire and intend. The result is a robust examination of how people around the world experience weaknesses of will, which speaks to debates in both the anthropology of ethics and moral philosophy.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum2026-06-01
Mått152 x 229 x undefined mm
FormatHäftad
SpråkEngelska
SerieWYSE Series in Social Anthropology
Antal sidor204
FörlagBerghahn Books
ISBN9781836956594

Tillhör följande kategorier

Sociologi inom Samhalle och politik
Antropologi inom Samhalle och politik
Filosofiska discipliner inom Filosofi och religion

IntroductionPatrick McKearney and Nicholas H.A. EvansChapter 1. Trigger Warnings: Danger, Desire, and Declensions of the Will in Eating Disorders TreatmentRebecca J. LesterChapter 2. Three Problems with the Addiction as Akrasia Thesis that Ethnography Can SolveDarin WeinbergChapter 3. To Live Like ‘People’: Drinking and Weakness of Will Among the Runa of the Ecuadorian AmazonFrancesca MezzenzanaChapter 4. Prayer, Demons, and Akratic SublationJon BialeckiChapter 5. Troubleshooting Humans: Modelling the Pathways to Inertia, Backsliding, and Moral Transgression on Indonesia’s Hypnotherapy CircuitNicholas J. LongChapter 6. The ‘Replication’ of Caste as a Form of Collective AkrasiaIvan DeschenauxChapter 7. Is Grit Irrational for Akratic Agents?Lubomira RadoilskaChapter 8. Relational Akrasia: Care and the Distribution of ActionPatrick McKearneyAfterwordRichard HoltonIndex

“These anthropological perspectives in akrasia do well to illustrate both the ubiquity of the phenomenon and the need to continue to collect cases of akratic human behaviour. Most normative approaches toward akrasia include aspiring toward its elimination, but collections like this give credence to the idea that akrasia is a mental phenomenon that greases the wheels of daily life.” • LSE Review of Books“This volume opens up the important subject of akrasia, one that any approach to the relationship between judgment and action needs to address. It is a very welcome addition to the literature.” • Michael Lambek, University of Toronto