Surrounding Self-Control

Self-control has gained enormous attention in recent years both in philosophy and the mind sciences, for it has profound implications on so many aspects of human life. Overcoming temptation, improving cognitive functioning, making life-altering decisions, and numerous other challenges all depend upon self-control. But recent developments in the philosophy of mind and in action theory, as well as in psychology, are now testing some of the assumptions about the nature of self-control previously held on purely a priori grounds. New essays in this volume offer fresh insights from a variety of angles: neuroscience; social, cognitive, and developmental psychology; decision theory; and philosophy. While much of the literature on self-control is spread across distinct disciplines and journals, this volume presents for the first time a thorough and truly interdisciplinary exploration of the topic. The essays address four central topics: what self-control is and how it works; temptation and goal pursuit; self-control, morality, and law; and extending self-control. They take up an array of complex and important questions. What is self-control? How is self-control related to willpower? How does inhibitory control work? What are the cultural and developmental origins of beliefs about self-control? How are attempts at self-control hindered or helped by emotions? How do our beliefs about our own ability to deal with temptation influence our behavior? What does the ability to avoid temptation depend on? How should juvenile responsibility be understood, and how should the juvenile justice system be reformed? Can an account of self-control help us understand free will? Combining the most recent scientific research with new frontiers in the philosophy of mind, this volume offers the most definitive guide to self-control to date. Contents 1. Introduction • Alfred R. Mele PART I. WHAT IS SELF-CONTROL AND HOW DOES IT WORK? 2. The Long Reach of Self-Control • Roy F. Baumeister, Andrew J. Vonasch, and Hallgeir Sjåstad 3. The Developmental and Cultural Origins of Our Beliefs about Self-Control • Adrienne Wente, Xin Zhao, Alison Gopnik, Carissa Kang, and Tamar Kushnir 4. Self-Control as a Coordination Problem • Asael Y. Sklar and Kentaro Fujita 5. Self-Control as Hybrid Skill • Myrto Mylopoulos and Elisabeth Pacherie 6. Inhibitory Control and Self-Control • Alejandra Sel and Joshua Shepherd 7. Exploring the Roles of Emotions in Self-Control • Andrea Scarantino 8. Children, Responsibility for Self-Control Failures,and Narrative Capacity • Meghan Griffith 9. Mind Control: Self-Control and Decision-Making • Marcela Herdova and Stephen Kearns PART II. TEMPTATION AND GOAL PURSUIT 10. Self-Control, Agency, and the Placebo Brain Stimulation: Psychological and Philosophical Perspectives • Davide Rigoni, Naomi Vanlessen, Rossella Guerini, Mario De Caro, and Marcel Brass 11. Framing Temptations in Relation to the Self: Acceptance and Alienation • Eric Funkhouser and Jennifer C. Veilleux 12. Shaping Our Mental Lives: On the Value of Mental Self-Controland Mental Self-Regulation • Dorothea Debus 13. Resist or Yield? What to Do with Temptations? • Bence Nanay PART III. SELF-CONTROL, MORALITY, AND LAW 14. Moralizing Self-Control • Marlon Mooijman, Peter Meindl, and Jesse Graham 15. Achieving Goals by Imposing Risk • Katherine Hawley 16. Self-Control and Deliberate Ignorance: On Ignoring Information We Ought to Know and Processing Information We Shouldn’t • Sammy Basu and James Friedrich 17. Self-Control, Cooperation, and Intention’s Authority • Lilian O’Brien 18. Juvenile Self-Control and Legal Responsibility: Building a Scalar Standard • Tyler K. Fagan, Katrina Sifferd, and William Hirstein PART IV. EXTENDING SELF-CONTROL 19. Framing as a Mechanism for Self-Control: Rationality and Quasi-Cyclical Preferences • José Luis Bermúdez 20. Empathic Self-Control • David Shoemaker 21. Negligence and Social Self-Governance • Manuel Vargas 22. Frankfurt and the Problem of Self-Control • Ryan Cummings and Adina L. Roskies 23. Self-Control, Mental Time Travel, and the Temporally Extended Self • Erica Cosentino List of Contributors Index "This book is one of the fruits of the Philosophy and Science of Self-Control project, a three-year project designed to explore the topic of self-control from a variety of angles: neuroscience; social, cognitive, and developmental psychology; decision theory; and philosophy. The book is divided into four main parts: "What is self-control and how does it work?"; "Temptation and goal pursuit"; "Self-control, morality, and law"; and "Extending self-control." Part I explores conceptual and empirical questions about the nature of self-control and how self-control functions. Questions featured here include the following: How is self-control related to willpower and ego depletion? What are the cultural and developmental origins of beliefs about self-control? Does self-control entail competition between or coordination of elements of the mind? Is self-control a set of skills? What is inhibitory control and how does it work? How are attempts at self-control hindered or helped by emotions? How are self-control and decision-making related? A sampling of questions tackled in Parts II, III, and IV includes the following: How do one's beliefs about one's own ability to deal with temptation influence one's behavior? What does the ability to avoid temptation depend on? How is self-control related to moral concerns and beliefs? How should juvenile responsibility be understood, and how should the juvenile justice system be reformed? How does the framing of possible outcomes bear on success at self-control? How are self-control and empathy related? Can an account of self-control help us understand moral responsibility and free will?" -- Oxford Scholarship Online Mining new research in neuroscience; social, cognitive, and developmental psychology; decision theory; and philosophy, the essays in this volume offer a multi-dimensional, robust examination of self-control. The cutting-edge chapters tackle a wide range of issues, for example: what enables us to resist temptation; the cultural and developmental origins of beliefs about self-control; how attempts at self-control are hindered or helped by emotions; the connections between self-control and moral beliefs; and how the juvenile justice system should be reformed given what we know about juvenile brain