#826 Eric Funkhouser: The Signaling Functions of Beliefs, and Self-Deception

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Dr. Eric Funkhouser is Professor and Departmental Chair of Philosophy at the University of Arkansas. His main areas of research are in the philosophy of psychology/mind and metaphysics. He is currently working on a series of papers concerning how social forces shape the functions of belief and other mental states. This work should culminate in a book, The Signaling Mind: Belief as Social Manipulation. In this manuscript, he argues that many beliefs serve a signaling function—much like animal signals used to manipulate other animals—that explains various irrational and dangerous beliefs, cognitive biases, as well as pro-social beliefs.

 

In this episode, we talk about beliefs, and self-deception. We first discuss what beliefs are, if they are always conscious, and how we study them. We talk about how to interpret incongruencies between belief and behavior. We discuss the signaling functions of beliefs, and how they apply to irrational beliefs, cognitive biases, and dangerous beliefs. We then get into self-deception, and discuss the different philosophical and scientific approaches to it. We also talk about the functions of self-deception, and discuss if it really works.

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