Recursive strategic deception can erase any determinate truth about intentions.

Evidence

But as Sartre again argues, sincerity might not be opposed to selfdeception but an active feature of it. Men like Frans Carl Valck were not insincere in their belief in the principles of empire and in their condemnations of some of its personnel and practices. But sometimes the contradictions were harder to bear, particularly during those life moments when he at once believed in, lived by, and despised the principles themselves. Valck might better be seen as someone caught in the bind of being as Bakhtin remarked in another context, “a person [who] never coincides with himself.” — Ann Laura Stoler, Along the Archival Grain_ Epistemic…, 1405 (#expands, via linked claim)

In psychology, self-delusion and self-deception describe a temporal space of uncertainty, with the inference “that the person ‘knows’ and ‘does not know’ at the same time.” Self-deception, then, is an assessment about the self-knowledge of others. It is also an evaluation that may be made about one’s own past actions but not made in situ, not in the active voice, about one’s present self. Others describe it as “a suspension in the normal objective interest in reality,” what one feels and believes “at the edge of awareness.” In this frame, self-deceptive constructions are “not judgments of reality” but actions done unknowingly to convince oneself. Sartre rejects both the Freudian frame and the divided self on which it rests. We constantly believe and disbelieve the same propositions simultaneously, he argues. Rather than acting ignorantly, “We must know the truth very exactly, in order to conceal it” more carefully from ourselves. — Ann Laura Stoler, Along the Archival Grain_ Epistemic…, 1397 (#expands, via linked claim)

The divorce of truth from discourse and action—the instrumentalization of com- munication—has not merely increased the incidence of propaganda; it has disrupted the very notion of truth, and therefore the sense by which we take our bearings in the world is destroyed. — James W. Carey, Communication as Culture- Essays on…, 378 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Self-deception requires precise knowledge of the truth being concealed, not ignorance — Ann Laura Stoler, Along the Archival Grain_ Epistemic…, 1397; Instrumentalized communication destroys the possibility of shared truth — James W. Carey, Communication as Culture- Essays on…, 378; Truth serum torture destroys victims’ capacity to distinguish true from false (+3 more)

Related

• Self-deception requires precise knowledge of the truth being concealed, not ignorance (similarity 0.87)
• Sincerity can be an active ingredient of self-deception rather than its opposite (similarity 0.83)
• Sartre held that self-deception requires exact, simultaneous belief and disbelief. (similarity 0.82)
• Lying requires full conscious possession of the truth being hidden (similarity 0.82)
• Self-deception is a stable life-style punctuated by abrupt awakenings (similarity 0.81)
• Freudian disguise mechanisms secretly require goal-directed consciousness they deny (similarity 0.80)
• Self-deception is the supreme danger in the realm of political secrecy (similarity 0.80)
• Polite deception can actually build rather than undermine trust (similarity 0.80)
• Recursive misperception of others’ intentions can erase objective truth from a social situation (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• Sincerity can be an active ingredient of self-deception rather than its opposite #expands (0.85) — Ann Laura Stoler, Along the Archival Grain_ Epistemic…, 1405
• Self-deception requires precise knowledge of the truth being concealed, not ignorance #expands (0.82) — Ann Laura Stoler, Along the Archival Grain_ Epistemic…, 1397
• Instrumentalized communication destroys the possibility of shared truth #expands (0.80) — James W. Carey, Communication as Culture- Essays on…, 378
• Truth serum torture destroys victims’ capacity to distinguish true from false #exemplifies (0.78)
• Instrumentalizing communication has destroyed our sense of truth itself #expands (0.75) — James W. Carey, Communication as Culture- Essays on…, 378