Talking to Our Selves

Reflection, Ignorance, and Agency

Nonfiction, Religion & Spirituality, Philosophy, Epistemology, Health & Well Being, Psychology
Cover of the book Talking to Our Selves by John M. Doris, OUP Oxford
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: John M. Doris ISBN: 9780191047329
Publisher: OUP Oxford Publication: March 19, 2015
Imprint: OUP Oxford Language: English
Author: John M. Doris
ISBN: 9780191047329
Publisher: OUP Oxford
Publication: March 19, 2015
Imprint: OUP Oxford
Language: English

John M. Doris presents a new account of agency and responsibility, which reconciles our understanding of ourselves as moral agents with psychological research on the unconscious mind. Much philosophical theorizing maintains that the exercise of morally responsible agency consists in judgment and behavior ordered by accurate reflection. On such theories, when human beings are able to direct their lives in the manner philosophers have dignified with the honorific 'agency', it's because they know what they're doing, and why they're doing it. This understanding is compromised by quantities of psychological research on unconscious processing, which suggests that accurate reflection is distressingly uncommon; very often behavior is ordered by surprisingly inaccurate self-awareness. Thus, if agency requires accurate reflection, people seldom exercise agency, and skepticism about agency threatens. To counter the skeptical threat, John M. Doris proposes an alternative theory that requires neither reflection nor accurate self-awareness: he identifies a dialogic form of agency where self-direction is facilitated by exchange of the rationalizations with which people explain and justify themselves to one another. The result is a stoutly interdisciplinary theory sensitive to both what human beings are like—creatures with opaque and unruly psychologies-and what they need: an account of agency sufficient to support a practice of moral responsibility.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

John M. Doris presents a new account of agency and responsibility, which reconciles our understanding of ourselves as moral agents with psychological research on the unconscious mind. Much philosophical theorizing maintains that the exercise of morally responsible agency consists in judgment and behavior ordered by accurate reflection. On such theories, when human beings are able to direct their lives in the manner philosophers have dignified with the honorific 'agency', it's because they know what they're doing, and why they're doing it. This understanding is compromised by quantities of psychological research on unconscious processing, which suggests that accurate reflection is distressingly uncommon; very often behavior is ordered by surprisingly inaccurate self-awareness. Thus, if agency requires accurate reflection, people seldom exercise agency, and skepticism about agency threatens. To counter the skeptical threat, John M. Doris proposes an alternative theory that requires neither reflection nor accurate self-awareness: he identifies a dialogic form of agency where self-direction is facilitated by exchange of the rationalizations with which people explain and justify themselves to one another. The result is a stoutly interdisciplinary theory sensitive to both what human beings are like—creatures with opaque and unruly psychologies-and what they need: an account of agency sufficient to support a practice of moral responsibility.

More books from OUP Oxford

Cover of the book The Constitutional Foundations of European Contract Law by John M. Doris
Cover of the book The School of Montaigne in Early Modern Europe by John M. Doris
Cover of the book Horse Nations by John M. Doris
Cover of the book Contract Governance by John M. Doris
Cover of the book Oxford Textbook of Musculoskeletal Medicine by John M. Doris
Cover of the book The Oxford Handbook of Later Medieval Archaeology in Britain by John M. Doris
Cover of the book Testamentary Capacity by John M. Doris
Cover of the book Rethinking Lessing's Laocoon by John M. Doris
Cover of the book The End is Nigh by John M. Doris
Cover of the book The Oxford Handbook of Psycholinguistics by John M. Doris
Cover of the book Acoustic Microscopy by John M. Doris
Cover of the book Challenging Health Economics by John M. Doris
Cover of the book Market Abuse Regulation by John M. Doris
Cover of the book Geopolitics: A Very Short Introduction by John M. Doris
Cover of the book The Genesis of Macroeconomics by John M. Doris
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy