Brandt on Self-Control

Abstract

There are three questions about self00ADcontrol that we discuss in this essay. The first is, what occasions self00ADcontrol: what circumstances call for the exercise of the virtue? The second is, what constitutes self00ADcontrol: what sort of psychological traits can realize it? And the third is, what recommends self00ADcontrol: what is there to be said in favour of the virtue? Richard Brandt has put forward views, explicitly and implicitly, on all of these questions and the aim of the essay is to examine his views critically. We are in sympathy with many aspects of his approach but, as will appear, we defend a picture that differs significantly from that which we find in his works. Show more