07.52 - 
Critical Riview
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Critical Riview
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CRITICAL RIVIEW (1)
CRITICAL RIVIEW
By Zuraida
Howard
Rachlin (2000). The Science of
Self-Control (Chapter 1: ‘Habit and Will Power’). Harvard University Press:
USA, (Will Power: Page 9-19)
Everybody wants to live happily until the end of
time. In order to get what they want, people will seek the happiness in several
ways. One of the ways is to get their self-control. There is an original claim
by Howard Rachlin that ‘human happiness
is inseparable from self control’(p.8). when people want to achieve happiness,
they have to keep their life in order by developing good habits.
Will Power is the subject of chapter one of Howard
Rachlin’s book The Science of
Self-Control. In particular, the author applies his viewpoint called
teleological behaviorism to self-control. The application of teleological
behaviorism to self-control according to George Ainslie’s (1992) Picoeconomics,
the papers reprinted in Gary Becker’s (1996) Accounting for Tastes, and
Richard Herrnstein’s (1997) The Matching Law. The author believes that patterns of behavior lead to self-control. Will
power is the very first concept to understand in order to know how behavioral
pattern may be established. The author consider three view points of what it
means to explain will power: a religious view, the Cartesian view and a modern
view. The author finds that the concept of the will is the purposes of human
daily life although it is too unscientific to survive in modern psychology
(p.18).
To support this idea, the
author provides the general problem with particular examples. Particularly,
that of alcoholism, how to apply self-control principles to people own specific
problem will not be immediately obvious.
In explaining about will power, Howard Rachlin
identifies the concept into three view points. The first is a religious view,
‘originating in the ancient East but popularized in the West by Saint Augustine
at about the time of the fall of the Roman Empire’ (p.11). Will, from the
religious viewpoint, is not how we generate behavior, but rather like a toggle
switch. Sometimes it gives our behavior over to control by the angel (the good)
and another time it gives our behavior to control by the devil (the bad).
Self-control thus consists in keeping that toggle facing upward; impulsiveness
consists in keeping it downward. The second is Cartesian view of will power.
One of the biggest contributors on this concept is Descrates. According to
descrates, the soul already has all ideas of all concepts is ever going to
have. Willpower thus has a literal interpretation in Descartes’s model—the
power of our souls to wrest control of our behavior from the outside world
(p.16). And, the third is the modern neurocognitive view of will power. This
view points state that self-control as an internal process. “The problem with
this model is that it provides no mechanism by which abstract purposes may be
translated into specific actions”(p.17).
The idea of three view points of will power is
convincing. We need to consider each particular example of every view points
and the pictures that shows how the concept works. But, the explanation of the
three view points above seems improper. The author should explain fairly about
every benefits and lacks of each view points. If the author did not explain each
view points completely, then the author seems to support one of the view
points.
Another questionable aspect of this article is the
domination of Decrates thought in Cartesian view. Decrates is the biggest
contributors of this view and the author only present his thought to support
the explanation of Cartesian view. The author should consider another thought
to enrich his explanation of the view. It is also to keep the objectivity
related to the Cartesian view.
Despite these criticisms, Howard Rachlin’s article
has contributions to the knowledge, particularly in self-control. This kind of
knowledge is not only necessary as the grounded theory of another upcoming
knowledge, but also really important to apply in our daily life. The particular
examples that given by the author had taken from our daily activity and so that
makes us think about how mind works in order to achieve happiness.
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