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Contemplating Plato's Akrasia
Week Three: The Republic, Book IV
Socrates presents three parts of the soul: the spirit, the appetites, and the rational. Here, Socrates allows for the possibility of irrationality, a different position he assumed in the Protagoras.
In sections 437b to 441e in Book IV, Socrates describes the three parts of the soul: the spirit, the appetite, and the rational. Socrates thinks that an agent's appetite is irrational.
Even though Socrates thinks that the rational should govern an agent's soul, he acknowledges that sometimes that isn't what occurs. Hence, he seemingly allows for the akrasia.
Reading List
Plato's Republic, Book IV
Edition: Hackett Publishing Company
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Secondary Source for the Week:
"Practical Reasoning and Weakness of Will" by Michael Bratman
Citation: Bratman, Michael. "Practical Reasoning and Weakness of the Will." Noûs 13, no. 2 (1979): 153-71.
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Weekly Dialogues
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