Procrastination: A Philosophical Examination of Willpower

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Procrastination in terms of weakness of will has only been recently discussed in philosophical discourse. According to Richard Holton, weakness of will or the lack of willpower is defined as acting against one’s values or when one is too easily able to reconsider their intentions. Procrastination, by definition, is the act of avoiding completing tasks often until rearing that deadline. Procrastination has commonly been viewed as irrational and has held a negative connotation, partly due to being considered a willful act by an individual. Procrastination, like other aspects that resemble a lack of willpower, is naturally attached to the concept of weakness of will by not only laymen, but also theorists and philosophers. Only recently has procrastination …show more content…

Her reasoning as to why the classical understanding of weakness of will would not be compatible with procrastination serves a clear distinction that one is dealing with a failure to act on something compared to not doing it. This can serve as a valuable piece of evidence in possibly making future distinctions in future theoretical articles on the subject. She also points out the distinction between akrasia being synchronic phenomenon and procrastination being a more diachronic phenomenon. In other words, Akrasia is formulated from significant events without having any special connection to one another while procrastination deals with events over a span of time and how it evolves. Although, this comparison is valuable and has some weight in regards to Stroud’s theory, her argument is not strong enough to formulate the same value in regards to Holton’s definition of intention in weakness of will. The only distinction made between intention and procrastination is in regards to an agent's’ defective planning and execution skills. The part where procrastination would fit in in terms of calculating the intention to do something would be right before that intention is fully developed. Therefore, if an agent doesn’t follow through pragmatically forming a full on intention, then it’s deemed procrastination since an intention has to fully be formed for an agent to experience weakness of

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