It’s something of an empirical fact that people do things which are not in their own best interest. Some people—Socrates, libertarians (yes, I know one of these things is not like the others)—seem to feel that this can always be traced back to an information deficit. If only we truly knew better, we would never eat sugary foods, buy tchotchkes, or stay up too late.
Dear reader, I submit myself as exhibit A in refuting this position. I know very well that lack of sleep, spending
on valueless items, and too sweet foods do not make me happy for more than
about half a second. And the more I can
keep those facts of life in mind, the less I am tempted by these particular
pitfalls. But the fact is, for all that
I have that knowledge, I don’t always … remember it very well. Aristotle has some excellent analysis of this
paradox, which Aquinas picks up and many a modern psychologist has performed
all anew.
It comes down, in modern terms, to willpower. It’s hard to muster enough will to do the best things for ourselves all the time, because doing the best thing is often harder than doing the immediately sensually or emotionally appealing thing. Aquinas talks in this context about attention: our minds tend to flit from one thing to another, and we do not always attend to the principles that we know to be true, e.g., this pecan praline crunch will not actually make me feel happy after about more than a tablespoon.
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