Feeling Like It: A Theory of Inclination and Will

I may feel like doing something and decide not to do it; I may do something without feeling like it. How does what I want bear on what I decide to do? Tamar Schapiro pursues this question in her extremely engaging and creative new book Feeling Like It. Schapiro’s primary explanandum is not inclination per se but the agent’s relation to her own inclination in what Schapiro calls “the moment of drama,” when an agent is inclined to or feels like ϕ-ing but has not yet determined what she will do. What Schapiro finds philosophically puzzling is the complex relation we agents occupy with respect to our inclinations. On one hand, we are in some sense passive with respect to our inclinations; on the other hand, to act from inclination not to be simply moved but is to move oneself, to be active. Developing arguments and positions...