  To adopt a general doctrine of this sort seems an awfully precipitous response to the possibility of akrasia. For it seems  extremely plausible to assign to our overall evaluations of our  options an important role in our choices. Man is a rational animal,  the saying goes; that is—to offer one gloss on this  idea—we act on reasons, and in the light of our assessments of  the overall balance of reasons. When we engage in deliberation or  reasoning about what to do, we often proceed by thinking about the  reasons which favor our various options, and then bringing these  together into an overall assessment which is, precisely, intended to  guide our choice.