Lynch, Kevin, Ph.D. (2011) A defense of a deflationary theory of self-deception. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

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Abstract

In this thesis I take the basic idea of self-deception to be that of believing something against
good evidence to the contrary because you want it to be true. I then identify the central
theoretical problem concerning this phenomenon as being that of giving an account of the
explanatory connection between the desire and belief in real life cases of this sort. The two
main approaches to answering this question in the philosophical literature are traditionalism
and deflationism. Traditionalists hold that the desire leads to the belief by motivating the
subject to intentionally acquire the belief, a belief he/she initially knows to be
false/unwarranted (i.e., it motivates her to intentionally deceive herself), while deflationists
deny this.
I defend a deflationary account of how self-deceivers end up with their unwarranted
beliefs, but one which differs from other deflationist accounts, either in substance or in
emphasis, by trying to preserve a central role for agency and intentional action in the
explanation and by trying to elucidate the nature of these culpable actions and intentions.
Accordingly, an account is developed which holds that self-deceivers end up self-deceived
because of their own actions, actions motivated by the relevant desires and emotions, though
these actions are not done with an intention to deceive oneself. I try to show how an account
of this sort can explain features of self-deception which any such account would be expected
to explain, and in a better way than its rivals, including, for instance, the tension of selfdeception,
and the fact that self-deceivers are responsible for their own self-deception, while
also avoiding the paradoxes that afflict other agency-focused approaches.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Subjects:	B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BD Speculative Philosophy
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Self-deception, Truth -- Deflationary theory
Official Date:	July 2011
Dates:	Date Event July 2011 Submitted
Institution:	University of Warwick
Theses Department:	Department of Philosophy
Thesis Type:	PhD
Publication Status:	Unpublished
Supervisor(s)/Advisor:	Roessler, Johannes
Sponsors:	University of Warwick. Dept. of Philosophy
Extent:	vi, 225 p.
Language:	eng

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