Hostname: page-component-6766d58669-88psn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-05-23T04:11:03.295Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Autism, Metacognition, and the Deep Self

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 March 2018

NATHAN STOUT
NATHAN STOUT*
Affiliation:
TULANE UNIVERSITY npstout@gmail.com
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract:

Many ‘deep self’ theories of moral responsibility characterize the deep self as necessarily requiring that an agent be able to reflect on her own cognitive states in various ways. In this paper, I argue that these metacognitive abilities are not actually a necessary feature of the deep self. In order to show this, I appeal to empirical evidence from research on autism spectrum disorders (ASD) that suggests that individuals with ASD have striking impairments in metacognitive abilities. I then argue that metacognitive conceptions of the deep self are implausible insofar as they fail to give a satisfactory account of the responsibility of persons with autism.

Keywords

moral responsibilitymoral agencydeep selfautism spectrum disorder

Information

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of the American Philosophical Association , Volume 3 , Issue 4 , Winter 2017 , pp. 446 - 464
Copyright
Copyright © American Philosophical Association 2018 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Baron-Cohen, Simon, Leslie, Alan M., and Frith, Uta. (1985) ‘Does the Autistic Child Have a “Theory of Mind”?’ Cognition, 21, 37–46.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Baron-Cohen, Simon, O'Riordan, Michelle, Stone, Valerie, Jones, Rosie, and Plaisted, Kate. (1999) ‘Recognition of Faux Pas by Normally Developing Children and Children with Asperger Syndrome or High-Functioning Autism’. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 29, 407–18.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Blair, R. James R. (1996) ‘Brief Report: Morality in the Autistic Child’. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 26, 571–79.Google Scholar
Blair, R. James R. (1999) ‘Psychophysiological Responsiveness to the Distress of Others in Children with Autism’. Personality and Individual Differences, 26, 477–85.Google Scholar
Bratman, Michael. (1997) ‘Responsibility and Planning’. The Journal of Ethics, 1, 27–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Broekhof, Evelien, Ketelaar, Lizet, Stockmann, Lex, van Zijp, Annette, Bos, Marieke G. N., and Reiffe, Carolien. (2015) ‘The Understanding of Intentions, Desires and Beliefs in Young Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder’. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 45, 2035–45.Google Scholar
Cushman, Fiery. (2013) ‘Action, Outcome, and Value: A Dual-System Framework for Morality’. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 17, 273–92.Google Scholar
Dziobek, Isabel, Rogers, Kimberly, Fleck, Stefan, Bahnemann, Markus, Heekeren, Hauke R., Wolf, Oliver T., and Convit, Antonio. (2008) ‘Dissociation of Cognitive and Emotional Empathy in Adults with Asperger Syndrome Using the Multifaceted Empathy Test (MET)’. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 38, 464–73.Google Scholar
Frankfurt, Harry. (1969) ‘Alternate Possibilities and Moral Responsibility’. In Frankfurt, The Importance of What We Care About (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998), 1–10.Google Scholar
Frankfurt, Harry. (1971) ‘Freedom of the Will and the Concept of a Person’. In Frankfurt, The Importance of What We Care About (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998), 11–25.Google Scholar
Frankfurt, Harry. (1987) ‘Identification and Wholeheartedness’. In Frankfurt, The Importance of What We Care About (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998), 159–76.Google Scholar
Frankfurt, Harry. (1992) ‘The Faintest Passion.’ Proceedings and Addresses of the American Philosophical Association, 66, 5–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Frith, Uta, Morton, John, and Leslie, Alan. (1991) ‘The Cognitive Basis of a Biological Disorder: Autism’. Trends in Neurosciences, 14, 433–38.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gallagher, Helen and Frith, Christopher. (2003) ‘Functional Imaging of “Theory of Mind”’. TRENDS in Cognitive Science, 7, 77–83.Google Scholar
Hill, Elisabeth L. (2004a) ‘Evaluating the Theory of Executive Dysfunction in Autism’. Developmental Review, 24, 189–233.Google Scholar
Hill, Elisabeth L. (2004b) ‘Executive Dysfunction in Autism’. TRENDS in Cognitive Sciences, 8, 26–32.Google Scholar
Hirvelä, Shari, and Helkama, Klaus. (2011) ‘Empathy, Values, Morality and Asperger's Syndrome’. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 52, 560–72.Google Scholar
Kennett, Jeanette. (2002) ‘Autism, Empathy, and Moral Agency’. The Philosophical Quarterly, 52, 340–57.Google Scholar
Korsgaard, Christine M. (1996) The Sources of Normativity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Koster-Hale, Jorie, Saxe, Rebecca, Dungan, James, and Liane, L. Young. (2013) ‘Decoding Moral Judgments from Neural Representations of Intentions’. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 110, 5648–53.Google Scholar
Leslie, Alan M., Mallon, Ron, and DiCorcia, Jennifer A.. (2006) ‘Transgressors, Victims, and Cry Babies: Is Basic Moral Judgment Spared in Autism?’ Social Neuroscience, 1, 270–83.Google Scholar
Ozonoff, Sally, Pennington, Bruce F., and Rogers, Sally J.. (1991) ‘Executive Function Deficits in High-Functioning Autistic Individuals: Relationship to Theory of Mind’. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 32, 1081–105.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Phillips, Wendy, Baron-Cohen, Simon, and Rutter, Michael. (1995) ‘To What Extent can Children with Autism Understand Desire?’ Development and Psychopathology, 7, 151–69.Google Scholar
Premack, David, and Woodruff, Guy. (1978) ‘Does the Chimpanzee Have a Theory of Mind?’ Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 1, 515–26.Google Scholar
Rajendran, Gnanathusharan, and Mitchell, Peter. (2007) ‘Cognitive Theories of Autism’. Developmental Review, 27, 224–60.Google Scholar
Rogers, Kimberly, Dziobek, Isabel, Hassenstab, Jason, Wolf, Oliver T., and Convit, Antonio. (2007) ‘Who Cares? Revisiting Empathy in Asperger Syndrome’. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 37, 709–15.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Saxe, R., and Kanwisher, N.. (2003) ‘People Thinking about Thinking People: The Role of the Temporo-Parietal Junction in “Theory of Mind”’. NeuroImage, 19, 1835–42.Google Scholar
Shoemaker, David. (2015a) ‘Ecumenical Attributability’. In Clarke, Randolph, McKenna, Michael, and Smith, Angela (eds.), The Nature of Moral Responsibility: New Essays (New York: Oxford University Press), 115–40.Google Scholar
Shoemaker, David. (2015b) Responsibility from the Margins. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Smith, Angela. (2005) ‘Responsibility for Attitudes: Activity and Passivity in Mental Life’. Ethics, 115, 236–71.Google Scholar
Smith, Angela. (2015) ‘Responsibility as Answerability’. Inquiry, 58, 99–126.Google Scholar
Stout, Nathan. (2016a) ‘Autism, Episodic Memory, and Moral Exemplars’. Philosophical Psychology, 29, 858–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stout, Nathan. (2016b) ‘Moral Agency and Responsibility: Lessons from Autism Spectrum Disorder’. PhD diss., Tulane University.Google Scholar
Stout, Nathan. (2016c) ‘Reasons-Responsiveness and Moral Responsibility: The Case of Autism’. Journal of Ethics, 20, 401–18.Google Scholar
Stout, Nathan. (2017) ‘Emotional Awareness and Responsible Agency’. Review of Philosophy and Psychology. doi:10.1007/s13164-017-0368-x.Google Scholar
Wallace, R. Jay. (1994) Responsibility and the Moral Sentiments. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Watson, Gary. (1975) ‘Free Agency’. In Watson (ed.), Free Will, 2d ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003), 337–51.Google Scholar
Yirmiya, Nurit, Sigman, Marian D., Kasari, Connie, and Mundy, Peter. (1992) ‘Empathy and Cognition in High-Functioning Children with Autism’. Child Development, 63, 150–60.Google Scholar