[lit-ideas] Re: What would Wittgenstein do?

  • From: wokshevs@xxxxxx
  • To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Sat, 8 Oct 2005 20:11:43 -0230

Quoting John Wager <johnwager@xxxxxxxxxxx>:
snip

>   So to 
> "will" something for Kant requires one to think about what one is doing 
> before doing it. If one just acts out of habit, it's not strictly "willed."
> 
Although, for Kant, I think, one can will to do P without actually consciously
thinking about it at that very moment of action. Nor would this be accountable
on the notion of "habit" (with its present connotations of unreflectiveness.)
Many (most) maxims that we act on are really dispositions: i.e., it is a maxim
of mine (I make it a policy) to have only 2 drams of malt in the evening after
I've returned from a hard day of teaching, research, service and table tennis.
The character of this maxim is such that it would be wrong to say that every
evening I consciously decide that I'm only going to have two shots of scotch. I
don't really think about it; the maxim has beem appropriated by me as a
disposition. Sometime in the past, I did reflect on that action or practice;
but I no longer need to do so (until my doctore informs me of the results of my
blood tests.) 

On a related matter: many people's willings are indeed simply acts of habit, and
K. recognizes this. Here the rational will is being distorted by choices and
decisions (expressive of "Willkur") heteronomously at the mercy of tradition,
desire, self-interest, prudence. The will is pure practical reason, for Kant.
The will is bound by reason, but it is not always bent by reason; hence,
weakness of the will. (This rendering is Habermas's. Why can't I come up with
such formulations?!! Maybe another dram will help....?)

Walter Okshevsky
Memorial U







> -- 
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> "Never attribute to malice that which can be     
> explained by incompetence and ignorance."        
> -------------------------------------------------
> John Wager                  johnwager@xxxxxxxxxxx
>                              Forest Park, IL, USA
> 
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