Trying is good
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21591952 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Zoë A Johnson King (0000-0001-5248-472X, Harvard University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Volume | 39 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 68-87 |
| Publication date | 2026-01-02 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Philosophical Psychology (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0951-5089 • E-ISSN: 1465-394X |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/09515089.2025.2512904 |
| OpenAlex | W4410956248 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 12 |
One might conceive of devotion as a stable state that a person can be in. Alternatively, one might conceive of devotion as a matter of the activities in which someone engages and the manner in which she engages in them. This paper explores the latter way of thinking about devotion. I suggest that someone’s degree of devotion to a person, goal, or cause depends in part on whether she engages in goal-directed activity for its sake, and, if so, on the proportion of each of her finite resources that she invests into these episodes of goal-directed activity. In brief: the more of herself a person devotes, the more devoted she is. I spell these points out in terms of the ordinary folk concepts of trying, trying hard, and not trying hard enough (each of which is analyzed in the paper). So, one could call this account the Trying Theory of Devotion. In the final section, I respond to some worries one might have about whether there can really be anything philosophically or psychologically significant about mere trying; I argue that these worries are misplaced
Cognitive science · Epistemology · Optimism, Hope, and Well-being · Philosophy · Psychological Treatments and Assessments · Psychology
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |