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Abstract |
Motivationally unconscious (M-unconscious) states are unconscious states that can directly motivate a subject’s behavior and whose unconscious character typically results from a form of repression. The basic argument for M-unconscious states claims that they provide the best explanation to some seemingly non rational behaviors, like akrasia, impulsivity or apparent self-deception. This basic argument has been challenged on theoretical, empirical and conceptual grounds. Drawing on recent works on apparent self-deception and on the ‘cognitive unconscious’ I assess those objections. I argue that (i) even if there is a good theoretical argument for its existence, (ii) most empirical vindications of the M-unconscious miss their target. (iii) As for the conceptual objections, they compel us to modify the classical picture of the M-unconscious. I conclude that M-unconscious states and processes must be affective states and processes that the subject really feels and experiences —and which are in this sense conscious— even though they are not, or not well, cognitively accessible to him. Dual process psychology and the literature on cold-hot empathy gaps partly support the existence of such M-unconscious states.
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Keywords | consciousness self-deception motivation unconscious dissociations irrationality confabulation dual-process psychology Freud cold-hot |
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DOI | 10.3389/fpsyg.2011.00224 |
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References found in this work BETA
The Conscious Mind: In Search of a Fundamental Theory.David J. Chalmers - 1996 - Oxford University Press.
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Eliminative Materialism and Propositional Attitudes.Paul M. Churchland - 1981 - Journal of Philosophy 78 (2):67-90.
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Citations of this work BETA
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Ethics of Incongruity: Moral Tension Generators in Clinical Medicine.Nicholas Kontos - 2019 - Journal of Medical Ethics 45 (4):244-248.
Que Peut Freud Que Brentano Ne Peut Pas?Hamid Taieb - 2019 - Revue Philosophique de la France Et de l'Etranger 2:183-201.
Functional Mechanisms of Health Behavior Change Techniques: A Conceptual Review.Maren M. Michaelsen & Tobias Esch - 2022 - Frontiers in Psychology 13.
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