The Thief of Time Philosophical Essays on Procrastination [Hardcover]

When we fail to achieve our goals, procrastination is often the culprit. But how exactly is procrastination to be understood? It has been described as imprudent, irrational, inconsistent, and even immoral, but there has been no sustained philosophical debate concerning the topic.

This edited volume starts in on the task of integrating the problem of procrastination into philosophical inquiry. The focus is on exploring procrastination in relation to agency, rationality, and ethics-topics that philosophy is well-suited to address. Theoretically and empirically informed analyses are developed and applied with the aim of shedding light on a vexing practical problem that generates a great deal of frustration, regret, and harm. Some of the key questions that are addressed include the following: How can we analyze procrastination in a way that does justice to both its voluntary and its self-defeating dimensions? What kind of practical failing is procrastination? Is it a form of weakness of will? Is it the product of fragmented agency? Is it a vice? Given the nature of procrastination, what are the most promising coping strategies?

Notes on the Contributors
Introduction,Chrisoula Andreou (University of Utah)andMark D. White (College of Staten Island, CUNY)

Part I
1. Procrastination: The Basic Impulse,George Ainslie (Veterans Affairs Medical Center)
2. Economic Models of Procrastination,Don Ross (University of Cape Town and University of Alabama at Birmingham)
3. Is Procrastination Weakness of Will?Sarah Stroud (McGill University)
4. Intransitive Preferences, Vagueness, and the Structure of Procrastination,Duncan MacIntosh (Dalhousie University)
5. Bad Timing,Jon Elster (Columbia University)

Part II
6. Prudence, Procrastination, and Rationality,Olav Gjelsvik (University of Oslo)
7. Procrastination and Personal Identity,ls�