Ira W. DeCamp Bioethics Seminar 

ABSTRACT: Philosophers usually define weak-willed action as action against one’s better judgment. This captures the idea that such action is wrong or bad, by one’s own lights. But in what sense is it weak? In relation to what form of pressure can a free will be strong or weak? I motivate this question and sketch an answer that I think Kant could have endorsed.

Tamar Schapiro is an Associate Professor of Philosophy at MIT.  Prof. Schapiro (PhD, Harvard) moved to MIT after teaching at Stanford from 2000-2015. She is interested in ethical theory, the history of ethics (especially Kant and the British Moralists), practical reasoning and human agency. Her most recent project is a book manuscript entitled, Feeling Like It: A Theory of Inclination and Will.

Johann Frick will chair.