Delusion and Self-deception: Affective and Motivational Influences on Belief Formation

Front Cover
Tim Bayne, Jordi Fernández
Psychology Press, 2009 - Philosophy - 299 pages

This collection of essays focuses on the interface between delusions and self-deception. As pathologies of belief, delusions and self-deception raise many of the same challenges for those seeking to understand them. Are delusions and self-deception entirely distinct phenomena, or might some forms of self-deception also qualify as delusional? To what extent might models of self-deception and delusion share common factors? In what ways do affect and motivation enter into normal belief-formation, and how might they be implicated in self-deception and delusion? The essays in this volume tackle these questions from both empirical and conceptual perspectives. Some contributors focus on the general question of how to locate self-deception and delusion within our taxonomy of psychological states. Some contributors ask whether particular delusions - such as the Capgras delusion or anosognosia for hemiplegia - might be explained by appeal to motivational and affective factors. And some contributors provide general models of motivated reasoning, against which theories of pathological belief-formation might be measured.

The volume will be of interest to cognitive scientists, clinicians, and philosophers interested in the nature of belief and the disturbances to which it is subject.

From inside the book

Contents

Mapping the Terrain
1
A QuantityofProcessing View
23
SelfDeception and Delusions
55
Copyright

10 other sections not shown

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

Bibliographic information