Belief, Deception, and Self-Deception

Dissertation, University of Minnesota (1990)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

Many philosophers in the last 40 years have argued that self-deception is a phenomenon that cannot occur. My project is not to prove that there are occurrences of self-deception , but instead to give an analysis of the concepts central to understanding self-deception--deception, lying, belief, self, rationality--which will open up logical space for the concept of self-deception. ;I argue that what has been called the static paradox of self-deception cannot be distinguished from the so-called dynamic paradox of self-deception and, further, that the latter paradox can be dissolved by a strict modeling of self-deception on certain unusual cases of ordinary deception. The main strategy for explaining how self-deception occurs consists in the attempt to assimilate self-deception to the phenomenon of akrasia, while at the same time insisting that self-deception must be modeled on ordinary deception. ;In later chapters of the dissertation I take up the topics of: responsibility--arguing that self-deceivers are unambiguously responsible for the actions and attitudes which are the result of self-deception, rationality--examining the challenge to claims of literal self-deception which are presented by principles of charity, and finally, I attempt to make the notion of self-deception precise by distinguishing self-deception from closely related phenomena such as wishful thinking, ordinary deception, and akratic belief

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 93,098

External links

  • This entry has no external links. Add one.
Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

Self-deception.Alfred R. Mele - 1983 - Philosophical Quarterly 33 (October):366-377.
Secondary self‐deception.Maiya Jordan - 2019 - Ratio 32 (2):122-130.
Instantaneous self-deception.Maiya Jordan - 2022 - Inquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy 65 (2):176-201.
Self-deception and psychological realism.Catherine Wilson - 1980 - Philosophical Investigations 3 (4):47-60.
Self-deception without paradox.Dante A. Cosentino - 1980 - Philosophy Research Archives 1388:443-465.
The distinction problem of self-deception.Chi Yin Chan - 2020 - Dissertation, Lingnan University
Self-deception and akratic belief: A rejoinder.Alfred R. Mele - 1988 - Philosophical Psychology 1 (2):201-206.
Deception About the Self: A Hierarchical Account of Self-Deception.David Anthony Patten - 2001 - Dissertation, State University of New York at Stony Brook
Self-deception and self-knowledge.Jordi Fernández - 2013 - Philosophical Studies 162 (2):379-400.

Analytics

Added to PP
2015-02-07

Downloads
0

6 months
0

Historical graph of downloads

Sorry, there are not enough data points to plot this chart.
How can I increase my downloads?

Citations of this work

No citations found.

Add more citations

References found in this work

No references found.

Add more references