Note 16 — Chapter I · THE PRESENT SIGNIFICANCE OF THE SOCRATIC ETHIC

What happens when I “see the better and approve it, but follow the worse,” is that an end later approved as “better”—i.e., better for me—is at the time obscured by the persistent or recurrent suggestion of an end temporarily more satisfying, but eventually disappointing. Most self-reproach is the use of knowledge won post factum to criticise a self that had to adventure into action unarmed with this hindsight wisdom.