Risposta ai commenti

In my Reply to comments, I take up a rehearsal both of the intentional and of the motivationist-causal account of self-deception. On the one hand, I explain the role of intentions in my account, the instability of the self-deceptive beliefs, and the emotional instability of self-deceivers. On the other, I illustrate how my solution to the selectivity problem works and why I think that the role of agency in the motivationist account is negligible in the causal process leading to self-deception. Finally, I engage with some cognitive theories and, especially, with the theory of argumentative reasoning, which, at first sight, seems to contradict the possibility of collective self-deception. Yet, at a deeper examination, such theory appears to be supportive of the way collective selfdeception is produced especially in politics.