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I researched in some sources but I'm not pretty sure if they are accurate:

Akrasia

"...occasionally transliterated as acrasia, is the state of acting against one's better judgment."

Procastination

"Procrastination is the practice of carrying out less urgent tasks in preference to more urgent ones, or doing more pleasurable things in place of less pleasurable ones, and thus putting off impending tasks to a later time."

To me they are basically synonyms, are they?

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  • There are lots of ways to act against one's better judgment besides procrastinating, right? So, they're not really synonyms, right? So, what's the question? Nov 19, 2013 at 12:42

2 Answers 2

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I dont think that they are synonyms.

Akrasia (ακρασία = insobriety ) is the explanation of not being able to do the morally good although their knowledge, ie what moral knowledge has no per se effect enforcement, employs a central problem in philosophy since antiquity. For Socrates, if anyone from people not sin on purpose, the problem is the lack of actual knowledge (not willingly bad). Plato, anticipating that the Socratic solution was impossible as such, constructed a metaphysical edifice ("theory of ideas") to explain the insobriety describing simultaneously the required moral knowledge of a particular type of people (State). Aristotle finally takes another route explanation accepting the crucial role of emotions and human passions in the psychology of human action.

Procrastination ( κωλυσιεργία = κωλύω + έργο) is just postponement. The energy of procrastination, the constant interference or reliance barriers, real or artificial, in a process in order for it to be delayed or not completed.

I can only see a connection if you suppose that procrastination is the cause of akrasia but its not the only factor to consider.

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They are not synonyms but are conceptually linked. Procrastination comes about because our emotional systems seek immediate rewards, which the activity that we are supposed to be doing is not yet providing. Akrasia is linked to it in that it describes any act which we do against our better judgement. Procrastination is just one example of the effects of Akrasia.

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