Aristotle, upon whom Menger based some of his ideas, believed in the concept of akrasia. Akratic action is action that is known to be against an agent’s own interests, but is pursued regardless. This is obviously incompatible with any rational choice-based theory of action, since the agent is purposely acting irrationally. An example is the drunk who knows his alcohol addiction is harmful and regrets his problem, yet continues drinking. Is this a problem for a realistic economic theory based on the assumed rationality of economic agents?
One first step to deal with this problem is relaxing the standard of rational action to the Misesian notion of purposeful action. This does not solve the problem fully. In this case, we can understand the agent as having two opposing beliefs about the usefulness of their action. The agent only acts on one of these beliefs, leading to feelings of regret from the other. However, this leads to a new problem: why would an agent choose only to pay attention to an inferior belief?
Elster attempts to solve this problem by positing a rapid change in time preference of the agent during the akratic act. When the actor soberly examines his options ahead of time, he may choose X over Y. However, when confronted with the imminent choice, he chooses Y due to a rapid increase in his discount rate. This solution does not provide an answer to the deeper question of why the agent would feel regret simultaneous with the action. It seems that the only way out of this puzzle is to admit that this increased discount rate is caused by a weakness of will, perhaps due to impulsiveness. The actor knows that his choice is problematic, yet is unable to impede the force of his passions. This is not incompatible with any Misesian theory ofchoice, since praxeology makes no claims about the motivations of an action.
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