138. Vladimir Krstić | Deception

What is deception, and can it occur without an intention to mislead, especially when the person being deceived is oneself?My links: https://linktr.ee/frictionphilosophy1. GuestVladimir Krstić is Assistant Professor at the United Arab Emirates University, and his work focuses on philosophy of mind, language, philosophy of deception.Check out his book with Cambridge Elements!https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/deception-and-selfdeception/F245F27D1A823DB21CC24B9C2D161C7A2. Book SummaryVladimir Krstić argues that the main puzzles about self-deception come from starting with the wrong theory of interpersonal deception. Traditional “intentionalist” accounts say deception requires an intention to mislead; when that model is applied to self-deception, it generates classic paradoxes (roughly: you’d have to knowingly trick yourself).His alternative is a functional account: something counts as deceptive when its function is to mislead—so deception (including self-deception) may be intentional, but it needn’t be, and crucially it’s never merely accidental or a simple mistake. This functional framework is meant to unify human deception, self-deception, and biological deception under one analysis.On the self-deception side, he applies the same functional idea to explain familiar “motivated” cases (e.g., rationalizing away distressing evidence) without requiring intention to self-deceive, and he suggests a practical marker: self-deception often shows up as a motivated departure from one’s normal standards—being “not oneself.” He also argues against the idea that self-deception must be beneficial or adaptive; some forms can be neutral or even harmful, so it calls for case-by-case treatment.3. Interview Chapters00:00 – Introduction00:50 – Overview of the book11:09 – Intention17:58 – Is deception always wrong?29:25 – Functional account36:29 – Function43:08 – Sci-fi case48:13 – Vagueness53:45 – Objections57:51 – Self-deception1:02:15 – Function and self-deception1:09:12 – Semantics1:17:27 – Value of philosophy1:24:33 – Conclusion This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit fric.substack.com/subscribe