Weakness of Will

The dude in the photo above is 70 years old.

In Gerald Dworkin's essay on paternalism, he has a rather interesting aside in which he suggests that philosophers thinking about weakness of will should focus on cases like people neglecting to wear their seatbelts rather than the more exotic sort of cases that they tend to worry about. I submit that the photo above presents a similar challenge, because we all know that doing yoga is really good for you (just look at that dude!) but few do it, and even fewer do it regularly. What explains our motivational failure? Is there any difference between laziness and weakness of will? Why don't we think laziness is a philosophically interesting topic?

Stuff from Japan

In spite of the efforts I've been making over the past year to avoid acquiring new stuff, I somehow managed to acquire a carry-on sized bag of stuff while in Japan. The bottom shelf is full of presents for Moses.

Japanese Edition of Frege's Collected Writings

The professor who hosted my visit to Tokyo had this recent edition of Frege's collected writings (all translated into Japanese). It's more complete than any English edition. And it's just beautiful. I would've taken a picture of the spines lined up next to one another but I thought that might make me seem a little bit obsessive.

Overheard in New York

Customer at the bodega at the end of my block, pointing at firewood for sale in the entrance: "Who the fuck has a fireplace in this neighborhood?"

Obama Bounce

If the crowd last night had been fun, I would've played this song. As it was, I played a lot of classics--which I love, but which it would have been nice to alternate with less familiar songs.

Obama Books in Japan

As you can see, Obama is pretty popular in Japan.

In at least a couple of different bookstores I came upon stereos playing recordings of his speeches. That's something I haven't even heard in the States.

Milk (2008)

Does the gay rights movement = the death of behaviorism? I hope so.