the will can obey the passions instead of the reason, and this accounts for the fact that we often know what is good and what is evil--even what is good for us, what is truly best for us, for our own ultimate happiness--and yet choose evil over good, choose what we know is not in our own best interests. We can choose misery over joy if our will, led by our passions, commands our mind to focus on the short-range pleasures and ignore the long-run miseries.