I think the problem isn’t that your actions are inconsistent with your beliefs, it’s that you have some false beliefs about yourself. You may believe that “death is bad”, “charity is good”, and even “I want to be a person who would give to charity instead of buying a beer”. But it does not follow that you believe “giving to charity is more important to me than buying a beer”.
This explanation is more desirable, because if actions don’t follow from beliefs, then you have to explain what they follow from instead.
He might not be wrong about beliefs about himself. Just because a person actually would prefer X to Y, it doesn’t mean he is always going to rationally act in a way that will result in X. In a lot of ways we are deeply irrational beings, especially when it comes to issues like short term goals vs long term goals (like charity vs instant rewards).
A person might really want to be a doctor, might spend a huge amount of time and resources working his way through medical school, and then may “run out of willpower” or “suffer from a lack of Akrasia” or however you want to put it and not put in the time to study he needs to pass his finals one semester. It doesn’t mean he doesn’t really want to be a doctor, and if he convinces himself “well I guess I didn’t want to be a doctor after all” he’s doing himself a disservice when the conclusion he should draw is “I messed up in trying to do something I really want to do, how can I prevent that from happening in the future.”
It doesn’t mean he doesn’t really want to be a doctor
You’re right. Instead it means that he doesn’t have the willpower required to become a doctor. Presumably, this is something he didn’t know before he started school.
Right. Maybe not even that; maybe he just didn’t have the willpower required to become a doctor on that exact day, and if he re-takes the class next semester maybe that will be different.
So, to get back to the original point, I think the original poster was worried about not having the willpower to give to charity and, if he doesn’t have that, worried he also might not have the higher levels of willpower you would presumably need to do something truly brave if it was needed (like, in his example, resisting someone like the Nazis in 1930′s Germany.) And he was able to use that fear in order to increase his willpower and give more to charity.
I think that’s a fair assessment, I have an image of myself as the sort of person who would value saving lives over beer and my alarm came from noticing a discrepancy between my self-image and my actions. I am trying to bring the two things in line because that self-image seems like something I want to actually be rather than think I am.
There is nothing wrong with wanting to be something you are not. But you should also want to have accurate beliefs about yourself. And being a sort of person who prefers beer over charity doesn’t make you a bad person. And I have no idea how to you can change your true preferences, even if you want to.
I think there are some pretty straightforward ways to change your true preferences. For example, if I want to become a person who values music more than I currently do, I can practice a musical instrument until I’m really good at it.
I think our maps of these scenarios can be a bit limited. Like I think you have to model yourself in a world where you are also a person who has needs which have to be advocated for / accounted for, and particularly you have to think, I have access to or control over these resources, that I can turn to these needs, and my sphere of control depends on things like my psychological state and how well rested I am and how much I know, what skills I have, what tools I have, etc, which I can also sometimes spend those resources learning, buying etc. And in which all that’s true of everyone else, too, of course.. that they are in a world where they may have to advocate for themselves to an extent or where some may be impaired or better able than most to do that. If you’re waited on hand and foot, you may be able to afford to pour more of your ‘all’ into benevolent behavior—if other people are making sure you sleep and feeding you on time and everything...
Agreed, though I’d call it “conflicting beliefs” rather than “false beliefs about yourself”. You seem to believe that you should be giving the same dollar to charity and to a bartender. And you probably do believe these things, at different times.
It contrasts with Akrasia, where you understand that you’re acting against your beliefs, but seem to lack willpower or resolve or SOMETHING to make yourself do what you want.
I think the problem isn’t that your actions are inconsistent with your beliefs, it’s that you have some false beliefs about yourself. You may believe that “death is bad”, “charity is good”, and even “I want to be a person who would give to charity instead of buying a beer”. But it does not follow that you believe “giving to charity is more important to me than buying a beer”.
This explanation is more desirable, because if actions don’t follow from beliefs, then you have to explain what they follow from instead.
He might not be wrong about beliefs about himself. Just because a person actually would prefer X to Y, it doesn’t mean he is always going to rationally act in a way that will result in X. In a lot of ways we are deeply irrational beings, especially when it comes to issues like short term goals vs long term goals (like charity vs instant rewards).
A person might really want to be a doctor, might spend a huge amount of time and resources working his way through medical school, and then may “run out of willpower” or “suffer from a lack of Akrasia” or however you want to put it and not put in the time to study he needs to pass his finals one semester. It doesn’t mean he doesn’t really want to be a doctor, and if he convinces himself “well I guess I didn’t want to be a doctor after all” he’s doing himself a disservice when the conclusion he should draw is “I messed up in trying to do something I really want to do, how can I prevent that from happening in the future.”
You’re right. Instead it means that he doesn’t have the willpower required to become a doctor. Presumably, this is something he didn’t know before he started school.
Right. Maybe not even that; maybe he just didn’t have the willpower required to become a doctor on that exact day, and if he re-takes the class next semester maybe that will be different.
So, to get back to the original point, I think the original poster was worried about not having the willpower to give to charity and, if he doesn’t have that, worried he also might not have the higher levels of willpower you would presumably need to do something truly brave if it was needed (like, in his example, resisting someone like the Nazis in 1930′s Germany.) And he was able to use that fear in order to increase his willpower and give more to charity.
I think that’s a fair assessment, I have an image of myself as the sort of person who would value saving lives over beer and my alarm came from noticing a discrepancy between my self-image and my actions. I am trying to bring the two things in line because that self-image seems like something I want to actually be rather than think I am.
There is nothing wrong with wanting to be something you are not. But you should also want to have accurate beliefs about yourself. And being a sort of person who prefers beer over charity doesn’t make you a bad person. And I have no idea how to you can change your true preferences, even if you want to.
I think there are some pretty straightforward ways to change your true preferences. For example, if I want to become a person who values music more than I currently do, I can practice a musical instrument until I’m really good at it.
I think our maps of these scenarios can be a bit limited. Like I think you have to model yourself in a world where you are also a person who has needs which have to be advocated for / accounted for, and particularly you have to think, I have access to or control over these resources, that I can turn to these needs, and my sphere of control depends on things like my psychological state and how well rested I am and how much I know, what skills I have, what tools I have, etc, which I can also sometimes spend those resources learning, buying etc. And in which all that’s true of everyone else, too, of course.. that they are in a world where they may have to advocate for themselves to an extent or where some may be impaired or better able than most to do that. If you’re waited on hand and foot, you may be able to afford to pour more of your ‘all’ into benevolent behavior—if other people are making sure you sleep and feeding you on time and everything...
Agreed, though I’d call it “conflicting beliefs” rather than “false beliefs about yourself”. You seem to believe that you should be giving the same dollar to charity and to a bartender. And you probably do believe these things, at different times.
It contrasts with Akrasia, where you understand that you’re acting against your beliefs, but seem to lack willpower or resolve or SOMETHING to make yourself do what you want.