The Opacity of Mind: An Integrative Theory of Self-KnowledgeIt is widely believed that people have privileged and authoritative access to their own thoughts, and many theories have been proposed to explain this supposed fact. The Opacity of Mind challenges the consensus view and subjects the theories in question to critical scrutiny, while showing that they are not protected against the findings of cognitive science by belonging to a separate 'explanatory space'. The book argues that our access to our own thoughts is almost always interpretive, grounded in perceptual awareness of our own circumstances and behavior, together with our own sensory imagery (including inner speech). In fact our access to our own thoughts is no different in principle from our access to the thoughts of other people, utilizing the conceptual and inferential resources of the same 'mindreading' faculty, and relying on many of the same sources of evidence. Peter Carruthers proposes and defends the Interpretive Sensory-Access (ISA) theory of self-knowledge. This is supported through comprehensive examination of many different types of evidence from across cognitive science, integrating a diverse set of findings into a single well-articulated theory. One outcome is that there are hardly any kinds of conscious thought. Another is that there is no such thing as conscious agency. Written with Carruthers' usual clarity and directness, this book will be essential reading for philosophers interested in self-knowledge, consciousness, and related areas of philosophy. It will also be of vital interest to cognitive scientists, since it casts the existing data in a new theoretical light. Moreover, the ISA theory makes many new predictions while also suggesting constraints and controls that should be placed on future experimental investigations of self-knowledge. |
Contents
1 Introduction | 1 |
2 The Mental Transparency Assumption | 11 |
Foundations and Elaborations | 47 |
4 Transparent Sensory Access to Attitudes? | 79 |
5 Transparent Sensory Access to Affect | 119 |
6 IntermediateStrength TransparentAccess Theories | 156 |
7 Inner Sense Theories | 192 |
8 Mindreading in Mind | 223 |
9 Metacognition and Control | 261 |
10 Dissociation Data | 293 |
11 SelfInterpretation and Confabulation | 325 |
12 Conclusion and Implications | 368 |
References | 384 |
| 419 | |
| 434 | |
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action activity affective agent alexithymia argue argument attitudinal working memory autism awareness behavior brain causal chimpanzees claim cognitive cognitive science commitment conceptual Conclusion confabulation conscious contrast cortex cues decisions desire discussed in Chapter distinct dual-method theories emotions evidence example experience experimental explain expressivism expressivist false belief feelings first-order forms globally broadcast goal higher-order human imagistic infants innate inner sense theories inner speech interpretive introspection intuitions involved ISA account ISA theory isn’t judgments knowledge latter learning mechanisms memory system mental events metacognitive metarepresentational mind mindreading faculty mindreading system monitoring Moreover motor Nichols and Stich nonconceptual normal object one’s oneself people’s perceptual predict present processes propositional attitudes question relevant reliable representations role schizophrenia Section seems self-attribution self-interpretation sensory access sensory-based someone sort Southgate et split-brain studies subjects suggests tags tasks theorists theory of self-knowledge thought transparent access transparent-access unconscious valence visual