I—Tamar Szabó Gendler: The Third Horse: On Unendorsed Association and Human Behaviour

Abstract

On one standard reading, Plato's works contain at least two distinct views about the structure of the human soul. According to the first, there is a crucial unity to human psychology: there is a dominant faculty that is capable of controlling attention and behaviour in a way that not only produces right action, but also ‘silences’ inclinations to the contrary—at least in idealized circumstances. According to the second, the human soul contains multiple autonomous parts, and although one of them, reason, normatively dominates the others, it may fail to do so descriptively: even in the face of full, explicit, well‐reasoned, conscious awareness of the truth of a claim, a person may continue to feel residual inclinations towards disavowed, inappropriate and misguided experiences and courses of action. In this paper, I will argue that even the second of these views does not fully capture the ways in which reflective commitment fails to guide human action. Whereas the traditional multi‐part soul view is well suited to explaining phenomena that involve a cognitive conflict between our reflective attitudes and our non‐reflective endorsements (such as weakness of the will), it falls short when we turn to the full array of human patterns of response, because it neglects a further source of challenge to reason's rule, namely, the mediation of associative and heuristic processes. These processes introduce complications for which the simple faculty psychology view cannot adequately account. Because they produce challenges to reason's rule that are phenomenologically invisible, traditional strategies for self‐regulation cannot be straightforwardly applied to their management.

The importance of self‐knowledge for free action

“…It is generally accepted that the influence of implicit bias on our action and reasoning is closed off to reflective processes (Carruthers, 2018; Frankish, 2016; Gendler, 2014; Holroyd, 2016). Along these lines, Tamar Gendler argues that implicit bias often manifests without a “distinctive phenomenology” (Gendler, 2014, 197).…”

“…Finally, agents can reduce instances of biased judgment by cultivating mindfulness through the process of mindfulness meditation. Recent research suggests that agents who practice mindfulness meditation can reduce their reliance on biased attitudes in reflection, resulting in fewer biased actions and judgments (Burgess et al, 2017; Gendler, 2014; Lueke & Gibson, 2015; Oyler, Price‐Blackshear, Pratscher, & Bettencourt, 2021). Agents who practice mindfulness meditation develop a greater capacity to suppress the influence of reflexively activated attitudes, such as stereotypes.…”

Implicit attitudes and the social capacity for free will

“…By means of implementation intentions, one is able to act in a way that is more consistent with reflective commitments. This strategy has been seen as a boost for people's ability to exercise control over their behavior (Gendler, 2014;Holroyd, 2012;Stewart & Payne, 2008).…”

Trusting Traumatic Memory: Considerations from Memory Science

“…Among the major philosophical theories of episodic memory are causal theories(Martin and Deutscher 1966; see DeBrigard 2014 for the discussion of memory traces), constructivist theories(Michaelian 2016), and causal constructivism(Hopkins 2018). While these theories disagree in important aspects, they agree that episodic memory involves some form of encoding of information, some relation between that information and the remembered event, and retrieval of some sort.5 On implicit bias: Holroyd (2012),Saul (2013),Gendler (2014),Nagel (2014),Leslie (2017), andSaul and Brownstein (2016).6 In a longer version of this article, we consider an alternative version of the TUA (ALT-TUA) that turns on a claim about pragmatic encroachment. We argue that ALT-TUA involves a distinct version of epistemic injustice involving victim testimony(Gardiner 2021).7 We will be focused primarily on cases of sexual assault.…”

“… 5 On implicit bias: Holroyd (2012), Saul (2013), Gendler (2014), Nagel (2014), Leslie (2017), and Saul and Brownstein (2016). …”