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“Can do” attitudes: Some positive illusions are not misbeliefs

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 January 2010

Owen Flanagan
Owen Flanagan
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708-0743. ojf@duke.eduhttp://www.duke.edu/~ojf
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Abstract

McKay & Dennett (M&D) argue that positive illusions are a plausible candidate for a class of evolutionarily “selected for” misbeliefs. I argue (Flanagan 1991; 2007) that the class of alleged positive illusions is a hodge-podge, and that some of its members are best understood as positive attitudes, hopes, and the like, not as beliefs at all.

Information

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 32 , Issue 6 , December 2009 , pp. 519 - 520
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

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References

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