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    If our access to our own acts were genuinely certain, sel... — Carmelics
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    Challenges→Many of our own acts are known with certainty equal to first principles

    If our access to our own acts were genuinely certain, self-deception would be conceptually impossible, yet self-deception is a well-documented and philosophically robust phenomenon.

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    1 reason for
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    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
    ?
    • 1.Self-deception requires simultaneous belief and disbelief about the same proposition, which reveals a gap in our self-access.
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    • 2.Psychological research documents motivated reasoning and implicit biases that operate below conscious awareness and self-report.
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    • 3.If we had certain access to our acts, we couldn't be deceived about our own intentions, motives, or the reasons for our choices.
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    Reasons Against

    1 perspective
    Reason against
    ?
    • 1.Self-deception doesn't require uncertain self-access; it only requires that some mental states remain private or inaccessible to introspection.
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    • 2.The claim conflates certainty with access itself—we could have reliable access without absolute certainty, preventing self-deception.
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    • 3.Self-deception might be conceptually possible even with genuine access if we can rationally override or suppress what we know about ourselves.
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    Key Terms

    Access to our own acts(referring to our knowledge of our own actions and choices)
    The ability to know and understand what we're doing and why we're doing it—basically, knowing what's happening inside our own minds and bodies.
    Conceptually impossible(as describing how akrasia would be if knowledge and action were unified)
    Something that couldn't even exist as an idea or concept—it would be logically contradictory to imagine it.
    Epistemically robust(epistemology (the study of knowledge))
    Strong and reliable from the perspective of knowledge and what we can actually know or verify—not just theoretically possible but actually meaningful to our understanding.
    Self-deception(Zhu Xi's account of wrongdoing)
    Allowing oneself to ignore the promptings of one's moral sense and become motivated solely by physical desires

    Connections

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    Truth & Knowledge1 linked

    Related

    If we had certain access to our acts, we couldn't be deceived about our own inte...Many of our own acts are known with certainty equal to first principlesPsychological research documents motivated reasoning and implicit biases that op...Self-deception doesn't require uncertain self-access; it only requires that some...
    +3 moreShow less
    Self-deception might be conceptually possible even with genuine access if we can...Self-deception requires simultaneous belief and disbelief about the same proposi...

    Details

    Type
    claim
    Perspectives
    2 (1 for, 1 against)
    Edits
    1 edit
    The claim conflates certainty with access itself—we could have reliable access w...