Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-g4j75 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-02-03T01:01:56.110Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Higher-order motivational constructs as personal-level fictions: A solution in search of a problem

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 January 2025

Marko Jurjako Open the ORCID record for Marko Jurjako [Opens in a new window]
Marko Jurjako*
Affiliation:
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Department of Philosophy and Division of Cognitive Sciences, University of Rijeka, Rijeka, Croatia [email protected] https://cogsci.uniri.hr/people/marko-jurjako/
*
*Corresponding author.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

I argue that Murayama and Jach's claim that higher-order motivational constructs face the “black-box” problem is misconceived because it doesn't clearly distinguish between personal and subpersonal explanations. To solve it they propose interpreting motivations as causal effects of mental computational processes. I suggest that their solution might be more compellingly presented as providing a fictionalist perspective on some personal-level constructs.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 48 , 2025 , e36
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press

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.)

References

Bermúdez, J. L. (2005). Philosophy of psychology: A contemporary introduction. Routledge.Google Scholar
Colombo, M., & Fabry, R. E. (2021). Underlying delusion: Predictive processing, looping effects, and the personal/sub-personal distinction. Philosophical Psychology, 34(6), 829–855. https://doi.org/10.1080/09515089.2021.1914828CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cushman, F. (2020). Rationalization is rational. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 43, e28. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X19001730CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dänzer, L. (2023). The personal/subpersonal distinction revisited: Towards an explication. Philosophy, 98(4), 507–536. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0031819123000220CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dennett, D. C. (1969). Content and consciousness. Routledge.Google Scholar
Dennett, D. C. (1989). The intentional stance. MIT Press.Google Scholar
Dennett, D. C. (2022). Am I a fictionalist? In Demeter, T., Parent, T., & Toon, A. (Eds.), Mental fictionalism (pp. 352–361). Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Drayson, Z. (2012). The uses and abuses of the personal/subpersonal distinction. Philosophical Perspectives, 26(1), 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1111/phpe.12014CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jurjako, M. (2022). Can predictive processing explain self-deception? Synthese, 200(4), 303. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-022-03797-6CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marr, D. (1982). Vision: A computational investigation into the human representation and processing of visual information. W. H. Freeman.Google Scholar
McGeer, V. (2015). Mind-making practices: The social infrastructure of self-knowing agency and responsibility. Philosophical Explorations, 18(2), 259–281. https://doi.org/10.1080/13869795.2015.1032331CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nisbett, R. E., & Ross, L. (1980). Human inference: Strategies and shortcomings of social judgment. Prentice-Hall.Google Scholar
Queloz, M. (2017). Two orders of things: Wittgenstein on reasons and causes. Philosophy, 92(3), 369–397. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0031819117000055CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tollon, F. (2023). Free will as an epistemically innocent false belief. European Journal of Analytic Philosophy, 19(2), (A2)1–15. https://doi.org/10.31820/ejap.19.2.2CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Toon, A. (2023). Mind as metaphor: A defence of mental fictionalism. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198879626.001.0001CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilkinson, S. (2014). Levels and kinds of explanation: Lessons from neuropsychiatry. Frontiers in Psychology, 5, 373. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00373CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed