Description:

We welcome Professor Maura Tumulty of Colgate University for our Philosophy Colloquia Series. Bio: Maura Tumulty is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Colgate University, where she has taught since 2007. She was previously Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Johns Hopkins University. She received her PhD from the University of Pittsburgh.

Title: Two(ish) Kinds of Self-Control

Abstract: Some philosophers (for example, Pamela Hieronymi and Richard Moran) distinguish between judgmental control (or rational control) and merely managerial self-control—particularly with respect to our control of our mental states. States like desire are normatively supposed to disappear whenever we sincerely endorse judgments in tension with them. (I am not supposed to continue wanting to smoke after I sincerely judge smoking to be bad for me). When such states prove recalcitrant—when they resist judgmental control—we can apply to ourselves methods that also work when we use them on others. We can, for example, arrange for negative associations to form around the desired object. I might choose to ingest something that will make me nauseous if I then go on and light up. (And someone who is more concerned with my physical health then my autonomy could force me to ingest that substance, with perhaps quite similar results.) The distinction between these two forms of self-control can appear quite sharp. I will argue, however, that the situation is more complicated. Some forms of merely managerial control are also essentially first-personal in character. Investigating their first-personal character helps explain why some experiences can feel alien to us in the way some of our desires can—even though we have no expectation that our experiences will bend to our judgments.

Reception immediately following in Crowe 1-140.