TY - JOUR AU - Patrizia Pedrini PY - 2018/06/03 Y2 - 2024/03/29 TI - What Does the Self-Deceiver Want? JF - HUMANA.MENTE Journal of Philosophical Studies JA - HM VL - 5 IS - 20 SE - Articles DO - UR - https://www.humanamente.eu/index.php/HM/article/view/198 AB - According to a recent theory of the motivational content of self-deception (Funkhouser, 2005), the self-deceiver wants to be in a state of mind of belief that p, upon which her want that p be true would be merely contingent. While I agree with Funkhouser that the self-deceiver is considerably moved by an interest in believing that p, which makes it possible for her to relate to reality in a highly prejudiced way, I will argue that it is unlikely that the self-deceiver’s primary want to believe, or interest in believing that p occurs as the result of a merely contingent interest in p being true. I will finally assess various consequences of the view I favor, regarding the self-deceiver’s avoidance behaviour, “twisted” self-deception, and whether we should provide a unifying account of “straight” and “twisted” self-deception. ER -