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Philosophies · Philosophers · List of lists Akrasia,
occasionally transliterated as acrasia (from Greek, "lacking
command (over oneself)") is the state of acting against one's
better judgment. Psychologists are well aware that some people
are more able to defer gratification than others; that is, some
people are more able to refuse a small reward now for the sake
of a bigger reward later. The question is why this should be so.
The problem goes back at least as far as Plato. Socrates (in
Plato's Protagoras) asks precisely how this is possible - if one
judges action A to be the best course of action, why would one
do anything other than A? - If an agent believes A to be better
than B, then he wants to do A more than B.