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.
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.