Anthony Trollope on Akrasia, Self-Deception and Ethical Confusion

Victoria Glendinning has noted that the “Ur-story” of Trollope’s novels consists of a romantic triangle where a protagonist is romantically committed to one character, yet becomes attracted to another character and hence delays the fulfillment of the first relationship. Trollope’s use of this form is not accidental: his novels return repeatedly and reflectively to agents who act against their own best judgment. Characters like Phineas Finn, who act on impulses they wish they did not have and for reasons with which they themselves disagree, demonstrate the centrality of the philosophical problem of akrasia or “weakness of the will” to Trollope’s thought, and thus make clear the extent to which Trollope’s use of the form of the romantic triangle is a tool for the analysis of a problem in moral psychology.

Davidson, Donald (1917–2003)

Donald Davidson’s views about the relationship between our conceptions of ourselves as people and as complex physical objects have had significant impact on contemporary discussions of such topics as intention, action, causal explanation and weakness of the will. His collection of essays, Actions and Events (1980), contains many seminal contributions in these areas. But perhaps even greater has been the influence of Davidson’s philosophy of language, as reflected especially in Inquiries into Truth and Interpretation (1984). Among the philosophical issues connected to language on which Davidson has been influential are the nature of truth, the semantic paradoxes, first person authority, indexicals, modality, reference, quotation, metaphor, indeterminacy, convention, realism and the publicity of language.

Argument and Performance: Alcibiades’ Behavior in the Symposium and Plato’s Analysis in the Laws

Argument and literary form, and how they both relate to each other, are crucial aspects of any interpretation of the Platonic dialogues. Plato the author and Plato the philosopher always work hand in hand in that Plato the author tries to serve Plato the philosopher. It is, therefore, an appropriate principle for approaching the study of Plato’s philosophy to take into account the literary aspects of the dialogues and to ask how Plato’s literary art of writing could possibly support his philosophical message and, for instance, to consider what this relation means in the context of the debate about developementalism versus unitarianism in Plato’s philosophy. In the present paper , I argue that the performance of the characters plays an important role in this context. I discuss various passages in the Laws which analyse the weakness of the will and I compare what Plato says there with the performance of Alcibiades in the Symposium. I conclude that the passages in the Laws can be read as a kind of commentary on Alcibiades’ behavior and I consider what this relation means in the context of the debate about developementalism versus unitarianism in Plato’s philosophy.

Argument and Performance: Alcibiades’ Behavior in the Symposium and Plato’s Analysis in the Laws

Argument and literary form, and how they both relate to each other, are crucial aspects of any interpretation of the Platonic dialogues. Plato the author and Plato the philosopher always work hand in hand in that Plato the author tries to serve Plato the philosopher. It is, therefore, an appropriate principle for approaching the study of Plato’s philosophy to take into account the literary aspects of the dialogues and to ask how Plato’s literary art of writing could possibly support his philosophical message and, for instance, to consider what this relation means in the context of the debate about developementalism versus unitarianism in Plato’s philosophy. In the present paper , I argue that the performance of the characters plays an important role in this context. I discuss various passages in the Laws which analyse the weakness of the will and I compare what Plato says there with the performance of Alcibiades in the Symposium. I conclude that the passages in the Laws can be read as a kind of commentary on Alcibiades’ behavior and I consider what this relation means in the context of the debate about developementalism versus unitarianism in Plato’s philosophy

La imatge aristotèlica del paralític i la malaltia de la voluntat al poema 74 d’Ausiàs March

Resum: El símil de la segona cobla de la cançó 74 d’Ausiàs March s’articula al voltant d’un mot agrest i poc poètic: «paralític». Dues obres de divulgació aristotèlica del dos-cents, la Summa Alexandrinorum i la Sententia libri Ethicorum de Tomàs d’Aquino, també empren «paralític» en el mateix context, a saber, per a referir-se a l’incontinent, és a dir, a qui pateix la malaltia de la voluntat. L’objectiu d’aquestes línies és mostrar la relació conceptual entre el poema 74 i aquests dos textos basats en l’Ètica nicomaquea d’Aristòtil. Paraules clau: Ausiàs March, Aristòtil, Summa Alexandrinorum, Brunetto Latini, Tomàs d’Aquino Abstract: The paralysis metaphor is crucial to the understanding of the second stanza of March’s poem 74. Two 13th century works, essential for the dissemination of Aristotle’s thought, namely, the Summa Alexandrinorum and Aquinas’s Sententia libri Ethicorum use the metaphor to adress the same moral issue: the akrasia or weakness of the will. This paper will examine the relationship between poem 74 and those two Aristotelian works. Key words: Ausias March, Aristotle, Summa Alexandrinorum, Brunetto Latini, Aquinas