ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the ethics of belief, but the ethical issues surrounding self-deception are actually broader. Self-deception is a failure of self-knowledge, and self-deception is a failure of rationality. If the self-deceived can know and control these failures, then they might be responsible — in particular, blameworthy — for their condition. If, instead of resulting in belief, self-deception produces only selective thought, avowal, or pretense, then it seems that these are things that could be directly willed. The issue of control is important because many think that there is a necessary connection between voluntariness, control, and related concepts, on the one hand, and responsibility, on the other. Discord among conscious beliefs and implicit attitudes might also be common for the self-deceived. They might consciously think and perhaps even believe that they are highly qualified professionals yet have implicit attitudes to the contrary.
