Abstract
Self-deception with regard to one’s life: with regard to what one is, but especially with regard to what one has done and what one is doing. There is a temptation to say that we deceive ourselves in this way because there is some deep need in us to do so. This suggestion does not serve as an explanation, although it looks as though it does. It does not explain anything.
Adapted from a letter to Ilham Dilman dated 30 October 1965 (ed.).
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References
Leo Tolstoy, ‘The Death of Ivan Ilych’, in The Death of Ivan Ilych and Other Stories, Signet Classic, New American Library, 1960 (ed.).
Flannery O’Connor, ‘Revelation’, in The Complete Short Stories, New York: Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, 1981 (ed.).
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© 1999 Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited
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Phillips, D.Z. (1999). Self-Deception and Needs. In: Phillips, D.Z. (eds) Moral Questions. Swansea Studies in Philosophy. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230598690_22
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230598690_22
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