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    Agents often enter self-deception motivated by a desire t... — Carmelics
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    Challenges→The motivation for self-deceptive belief formation should be restricted to a desire to believe that p.

    Agents often enter self-deception motivated by a desire that p be false (e.g., 'I want it not to be true that I am ill'), not merely a desire to believe p.

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    1 reason for
    1 reason against

    Reasons For

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    Reason for
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    • 1.Desires about reality (wanting p false) are phenomenologically distinct from desires about belief (wanting to believe not-p).
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    • 2.Self-deception often persists even when the agent recognizes the belief is unjustified, suggesting motivation targets reality, not just mental states.
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    • 3.Wishful thinking explains why agents resist evidence: they desire the world differ, not merely desire comforting thoughts about it.
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    Reasons Against

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    Reason against
    ?
    • 1.Desires for reality and desires for belief collapse together: wanting p false requires believing it possible, which requires some belief-desire about it.
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    • 2.The distinction conflates causal motivation with intentional content; both desire-types could drive identical self-deceptive behavior mechanically.
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    • 3.Parsimony favors single-desire explanations: desire to believe not-p adequately explains the evidence without positing desires about external facts.
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    Related

    Desires about reality (wanting p false) are phenomenologically distinct from des...Desires for reality and desires for belief collapse together: wanting p false re...Parsimony favors single-desire explanations: desire to believe not-p adequately ...Self-deception often persists even when the agent recognizes the belief is unjus...
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    The distinction conflates causal motivation with intentional content; both desir...The motivation for self-deceptive belief formation should be restricted to a des...Wishful thinking explains why agents resist evidence: they desire the world diff...

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