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Silver Chairs, Paternalism, and Akrasia — LessWrong

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Inspired in part by Robin Hanson's excellent article on paternalism a while back, and in response to the various akrasia posts. In C.S. Lewis's fourth Narnia book, The Silver Chair, the protagonists (two children and a Marsh-wiggle) are faced with a dilemma regarding the title object. To wit, they met an eloquent and quite sane-seeming young man, who after a while reveals that he has a mental disorder: for an hour every night, he loses his mind and must be restrained in the Silver Chair; and if he were to be released during that time he would become a giant, evil snake (it is a fantasy novel, after all). The heroes determine to witness this, and the young man calmly straps himself into the chair. After a few moments, a change comes over him and he begins struggling and begging for release, claiming the other personality is the false one. The children are nonplussed: which person(ality) should they believe? And (a separate question) which should they help? In the book this dilemma

x Silver Chairs, Paternalism, and Akrasia — LessWrong Akrasia Fiction (Topic) Psychiatry Frontpage 34 Silver Chairs, Paternalism, and Akrasia by dclayh 9th Apr 2009 4 min read 40 34 Inspired in part by Robin Hanson's excellent article on paternalism a while back, and in response to the various akrasia posts . In C.S. Lewis's fourth Narnia book, The Silver Chair , the protagonists (two children and a Marsh-wiggle) are faced with a dilemma regarding the title object. To wit, they met an eloquent and quite sane-seeming young man, who after a while reveals that he has a mental disorder: for an hou

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