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3 Crim. L. & Phil. 1 (2009)

handle is hein.journals/crimlpy3 and id is 1 raw text is: Crim Law and Philos (2009) 3:1-17 DOI 10.1007/s11572-008-9057-2 Dealing with Wayward Desire Stephen P. Garvey Published online: 23 September 2008 © Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2008 Abstract The exercise of synchronic self-control is the way in which an actor can attempt to bring a desire into alignment with his better judgement at the moment and during the interval of time over which, but for the exercise of such self-control, the desire would become the actor's preponderant desire, which the actor would then translate into an act contrary to his better judgment. The moral psychology of an actor who fails to achieve such self-control can be analyzed in two ways. One way is meant to be consistent with compatibilist metaphysics; the other with libertarian metaphysics. The implications of these analyses for the criminal law are complicated, but perhaps the most important is this: the criminal law should in principle recognize a partial excuse for an actor who exercises synchronic self-control but who gives up his effort because he believes that he can no longer continue to resist. His effort to achieve self-control thus fails, and he ends up translating into action the very desire he set out to control. Keywords Diachronic self-control - Synchronic self-control - Weakness of will Akrasia - Partial excuse Introduction How should the criminal law deal with an offender who commits a crime under the influence of a strong desire to cp when the actor believes all things considered that he should not cp, when he has tried to resist the influence of the desire to cp, but when his effort has ended in failure? In other words, what should the criminal law do with the weak-willed (or akratic) offender? Should he be treated like an offender who commits the same offense but who made no effort to resist the wayward desire to cp, or indeed, like one who wholeheartedly identified with or endorsed that desire? Or should the weak-willed actor get a break of some sort for at least having tried to gain the upper hand on his wayward desire? S. P. Garvey (E) Cornell Law School, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA e-mail: spg3@cornell.edu Springer

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