Research Group
in Analytic Philosophy

Abstract

The phenomenon of everyday confabulation suggests that we routinely distort reality, being vulnerable to epistemic irrationality and failures of self-knowledge. Here I focus on the explanations we give for our attitudes and choices. First I describe the epistemic costs of confabulating such explanations. Then I argue that, despite their epistemic costs, confabulated explanations for our attitudes and choices support our capacity to share information with our peers and obtain feedback from them, and also enhance our sense of agency, better enabling us to pursue and fulfil our goals, including our epistemic goals.