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    Although impressions are involuntary in the moment, they ... — Carmelics
    Home/Virtue Ethics
    HistoryEditSee Inverse

    Although impressions are involuntary in the moment, they are subject to control in the long run through repeated assent and refusal.

    Free Will & ForeknowledgeVirtue Ethics
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    1 reason for
    2 reasons against

    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
    ?
    • 1.If one keeps refusing to assent to the impression that wealth is good, wealth will eventually cease to appear as good.
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    • 2.One's character and opinions plausibly influence one's impressions, especially evaluative impressions and impressions requiring expertise.
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    • 3.Marcus states that one's mind will be of the same character as the impressions it entertains.
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    Reasons Against

    2 perspectives
    Reason against 1 of 2
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    • 1.Repeated assent shapes character only if the agent already possesses the rational self-governance that assent is supposed to produce, creating a vicious regress.
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    • 2.Aristotle's account of akrasia shows that habitual cognitive patterns can override deliberate rational assent, undermining the mechanism of long-run voluntary control.
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    • 3.If early impressions are involuntary and assent to them shapes future impressions, the initial conditions of character formation escape rational control entirely.
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    Reason against 2 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Contemporary neuroscience and Humean psychology establish that evaluative impressions are largely driven by affective processes that operate below the threshold of deliberate assent.
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    • 2.If the causal mechanism producing impressions is non-rational and sub-personal, then withholding assent addresses only the downstream symptom while leaving the generative cause intact.
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    Topics

    Virtue EthicsFree Will & Foreknowledge

    Connections

    2 topics

    Perception3 linkedConsciousness & Mind1 linked

    Related

    Aristotle's account of akrasia shows that habitual cognitive patterns can overri...Contemporary neuroscience and Humean psychology establish that evaluative impres...If early impressions are involuntary and assent to them shapes future impression...If one keeps refusing to assent to the impression that wealth is good, wealth wi...
    +4 moreShow less
    If the causal mechanism producing impressions is non-rational and sub-personal, ...Marcus states that one's mind will be of the same character as the impressions i...One's character and opinions plausibly influence one's impressions, especially e...

    Similar

    Withholding assent from compelling impressions may require countering ...85%Marcus's injunction to 'erase' impressions means to override inadequat...79%One's character and opinions plausibly influence one's impressions, es...76%Hadot's interpretation of Marcus's 'erase impressions' as 'assent only...74%

    Source

    AI-extracted1/3 agreementValid
    SEP: marcus-aurelius
    View source passageHide passage
    This last use of ‘providence or atoms’ shows that since Marcus is writing to effect certain psychological attitudes in himself, we have to look to context to determine what the desired attitude is, and then determine how the things he tells himself are supposed to effect the attitude. Perhaps bringing about the desired attitude calls for making hyperbolic statements in order to correct for some natural tendency he thinks he has. If we do not keep this in mind as we read Marcus, we will only find
    Extraction notes

    Validity: Extracted via Max plan + API grounding/validity checks

    Details

    Repeated assent shapes character only if the agent already possesses the rationa...
    Type
    claim
    Perspectives
    3 (1 for, 2 against)
    Edits
    1 edit