Against Better Judgment : Akrasia in Anthropological Perspectives

"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"-- Provided by publisher Contents 5 Introduction 7 1. Trigger Warnings: Danger, Desire and Declensions of the Will in Eating Disorders Treatment 40 2. Three Problems with the Addiction as Akrasia Thesis That Ethnography Can Solve 56 3. To Live Like ‘People’: Drinking and Weakness of Will among the Runa of the Ecuadorian Amazon 76 4. Prayer, Demons and Akratic Sublation 95 5. Troubleshooting Humans: Modelling the Pathways to Inertia, Backsliding and Moral Transgression on Indonesia’s Hypnotherapy Circuit 108 6. The ‘Replication’ of Caste as a Form of Collective Akrasia 132 7. Is Grit Irrational for Akratic Agents? 152 8. Relational Akrasia: Care and the Distribution of Action 175 Afterword. Akrasia in Its Social Context 195 Index 202

Anthropologists have long explained social behaviour as ifpeople always do what they think is best. But what if most of theseexplanations only work because they are premised upon ignoring whatphilosophers call 'akrasia' - that is, the possibility that peoplemight act against their better judgment? The contributors to thisvolume turn an ethnographic lens upon situations in which peopleseem to act out of line with what they judge, desire and intend.The result is a robust examination of how people around the worldexperience weaknesses of will, which speaks to debates in both theanthropology of ethics and moral philosophy.