Self-deception, Life-lies and Sincerity

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

What tortures us [...] is an opinion, and every evil is only as great as we have reckoned it to be. In our own hands we have the remedy. Let us [...] deceive ourselves". (Seneca) Is this good advice to take to heart in our lives? Does self-deception make us happy? Or does it pose dangers to our moral integrity, so that sincerity should always be our ideal? In this course, we will look at important answers to these questions. We will also discuss what other philosophical conundrums are associated with self-deception and what solutions to them have been proposed in the literature - by contemporary thinkers and by thinkers of the tradition.