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<p dir="ltr">This dissertation explores questions of personal change and the power of narrative with respect to both an individual and to the wider social environment. In chapter one, I explore the connections between the various facets of liminality and agency, with a focus on how it is that people can consciously craft specific ways of being an agent. In chapter two, I explore the nature of disagreements that involve our most fundamental commitments from within the context of Ludwig Wittgenstein’s posthumous <i>On Certainty</i>. Wittgenstein was pessimistic that argumentation could help in such cases, yet left it an open question as to whether they could be otherwise resolved. Here, I suggest the practice of storytelling as one strategy to resolve these disagreements. Finally, in chapter 3, I examine recent takes on conspiracy theories that include evaluating conspiracy theories as contrarian claims to secret knowledge as well as highlighting the political function that many conspiracy theories can play. Here, I will develop a claim that is common to both camps: conspiracy theories tell stories. By analyzing the characters and narrative structures at play in conspiracy theories, we can gain a deeper understanding of why conspiracy theorists think they know what they know, why particular conspiracy theories reference certain groups or agents rather than others, and why some tropes appear and reappear in conspiracy theories.</p>

Cette thèse met en place un modèle permettant d'éclairer les relations entre certaines émotions et la conception que l'individu a de lui-même. En accord avec plusieurs auteurs contemporains, il est ici défendu que la conception que nous avons de nous-mêmes prend la forme d'une identité narrative, c'est-à-dire d'un récit à l'intérieur duquel nous tentons de structurer une image cohérente de nous-mêmes. Dans cette perspective, il est proposé qu'un certain groupe d'émotions, comme la honte, la fierté et la culpabilité, occupe une place cruciale dans la formation et le maintien de cette image de soi. Ces émotions, que nous pouvons qualifier d'auto-évaluatives, conditionnent l'évaluation que nous avons de nous-mêmes et participent ainsi à l'élaboration de la représentation de soi. De plus, cette identité narrative, à travers un certain aspect normatif et motivant, vient à son tour influencer la manifestation et l'interprétation de ces mêmes émotions. Ainsi, la relation entre les émotions auto-évaluatives et l'identité narrative serait une relation complexe d'influences réciproques. L’analyse proposée devrait permettre de clarifier de nombreux aspects de l’économie mentale de l’individu et plus particulièrement de sa motivation morale. / This thesis establishes a model to understand the relationships between a particular group of emotions and the individual's conception of himself. In agreement with several contemporary authors, it is argued here that the conception we have of ourselves is in the form of a narrative identity, namely a story within which we try to structure a coherent picture of ourselves. In this perspective, it is proposed that a group of emotions, including shame, pride and guilt, occupies a crucial place in the formation and maintenance of this self-image. These emotions, that we can describe as self-assessing, would influence self assessment and thus participate in the development of self-image. Moreover, narrative identity, through a normative and motivational aspect, will in turn influences the manifestation and interpretation of those same emotions. So the relationship between emotions and self-assessing narrative identity is a complex relationship of mutual influence. The analysis proposed here might help clarify many mental processes of the individual and especially its moral motivation.

Dans cette thèse en psychologie morale, je m’intéresse au rôle de l’imagination dans la perception morale. Je soutiens que l’imagination y a une fonction épistémique dans la mesure où – en s’accompagnant ou non d’émotions – elle nous révèle des normes, des valeurs ou des vertus morales qui seraient autrement passées inaperçues. En simulant des croyances et des perceptions, l’imagination nous permet d’accéder à ces caractéristiques d’une situation moralement pertinentes, mais perceptuellement non saillantes. J’identifie trois modes de « perception morale imaginative » : 1) la prise de perspective qui consiste à endosser le point de vue d’autrui, 2) le cadrage imaginatif qui désigne le fait de voir un élément d’une situation comme autre qu’il n’est et, 3) la comparaison imaginative qui, grâce à la pensée contrefactuelle, éclaire le monde actuel à partir d’un monde possible imaginé. Chacun de ces modes contribue à enrichir notre connaissance morale, et partant, à améliorer notre délibération morale. J’appuie ma démonstration sur des travaux récents en philosophie de la psychologie, en psychologie cognitive et sociale, en neuropsychologie et, bien évidemment, en psychologie morale. / My thesis focuses on the role of imagination for moral perception. I argue that imagination – whether accompanied by emotion or not - has an epistemic role inasmuch as it can reveal moral norms, values, and virtues that might otherwise go un-noticed. On the simulationist account, belief-like imaginings and perception-like imaginings give us access to the morally relevant but perceptually non-salient features of a situation. I identify three types of “imaginative moral perception”: 1) the perspective taking that consists of putting yourself in someone else’s shoes; 2) the imaginative framing, which refers to seeing an element of a situation as something else; 3) the imaginative comparison, which sheds light on the actual world by using counterfactuals thinking that give us access to a possible world. Each of these types of moral perception contributes to enhancing our moral knowledge hence to improving our moral deliberation. My argument appeals to recent contributions from the fields of philosophy of psychology, cognitive and social psychology, neuropsychology and, of course, moral psychology.

The knowledge base of empirical psychology is more expansive than ever before. So too is the impulse to integrate this factual knowledge into political theory. But how should this psychological turn be undertaken? What would a political psychology for political theorists look like? How could psychology credibly tackle the questions that political theorists characteristically ask, especially regarding the nature and consequences of prescriptive political judgment? In this thesis, I explore this issue through the framework of recent debates between political moralists—specifically, John Rawls, G. A. Cohen, and Peter Singer—and political realists—largely Bernard Williams. Deploying the insights of political realists, I argue that moralists cannot quarantine the relevance of psychological facts through the ideal of a 'pure' normative judgment. To explore what this empirical engagement might look like, I contrast these moralist ideals of judgment with Jonathan Haidt’s social intuitionism, which proposes a more affectively laden and pluralistic model of judgment. I then redeploy the insights of political realism to critique social intuitionism, to uncover its weaknesses from the perspective of existing political theory. Finally, to stabilize this critique, I lay out the framework for a reflexive political psychology, which acknowledges the co-constitutive relationship between the discipline of psychology and its subject matter: human psychology. This reflexive political psychology offers an agenda by which we can investigate the political usefulness of psychological and political theories.

The Philebus is devoted to the question what constitutes the good for a human being. Although Socrates initially favors a life of pure intelligence against the hedonist’s life of pure pleasure, he quickly concedes that some pleasures actually enhance the life of intelligence. In order to determine which pleasures deserve a place in the best life, Socrates undertakes a lengthy investigation into the nature of pleasure. Commentators have long been frustrated in their attempt to uncover a single, unified account that explains in a plausible way the extraordinary variety of pleasures analyzed in the dialogue. I argue that this search for a generic account of pleasure is misguided, because one of the main purposes of Socrates’ division of pleasure is to expose its essentially heterogeneous nature. Pleasures can be bodily or psychic, pure or mixed with pain, truth apt or not, healthy or diseased, and inherently measured or unmeasured, and there are no essential properties which all of these diverse phenomena share. The inclusion of some pleasures in the final ranking of the goods at the end of the Philebus represents a dramatic shift in Plato’s attitude towards certain pleasures, and so it is not surprising that many scholars misinterpret the force of this conclusion. Even in the Republic where the pleasures of reason are favorably compared to the pleasures of spirit and appetite, intellectual pleasures are judged to be more pleasant and real than other pleasures, but they are nowhere judged to be better or praised as genuine goods. In the Philebus, not only are some pleasures unambiguously ranked among the highest goods, but Socrates gives no indication that these pleasures are good only in some qualified or extrinsic way. Instead, certain pleasures make their own positive contribution to the goodness of the best human life, making the mixed life more valuable and choiceworthy than the unmixed life of intelligence.

Cette thèse met en place un modèle permettant d'éclairer les relations entre certaines émotions et la conception que l'individu a de lui-même. En accord avec plusieurs auteurs contemporains, il est ici défendu que la conception que nous avons de nous-mêmes prend la forme d'une identité narrative, c'est-à-dire d'un récit à l'intérieur duquel nous tentons de structurer une image cohérente de nous-mêmes. Dans cette perspective, il est proposé qu'un certain groupe d'émotions, comme la honte, la fierté et la culpabilité, occupe une place cruciale dans la formation et le maintien de cette image de soi. Ces émotions, que nous pouvons qualifier d'auto-évaluatives, conditionnent l'évaluation que nous avons de nous-mêmes et participent ainsi à l'élaboration de la représentation de soi. De plus, cette identité narrative, à travers un certain aspect normatif et motivant, vient à son tour influencer la manifestation et l'interprétation de ces mêmes émotions. Ainsi, la relation entre les émotions auto-évaluatives et l'identité narrative serait une relation complexe d'influences réciproques. L’analyse proposée devrait permettre de clarifier de nombreux aspects de l’économie mentale de l’individu et plus particulièrement de sa motivation morale. / This thesis establishes a model to understand the relationships between a particular group of emotions and the individual's conception of himself. In agreement with several contemporary authors, it is argued here that the conception we have of ourselves is in the form of a narrative identity, namely a story within which we try to structure a coherent picture of ourselves. In this perspective, it is proposed that a group of emotions, including shame, pride and guilt, occupies a crucial place in the formation and maintenance of this self-image. These emotions, that we can describe as self-assessing, would influence self assessment and thus participate in the development of self-image. Moreover, narrative identity, through a normative and motivational aspect, will in turn influences the manifestation and interpretation of those same emotions. So the relationship between emotions and self-assessing narrative identity is a complex relationship of mutual influence. The analysis proposed here might help clarify many mental processes of the individual and especially its moral motivation.

Dans cette thèse en psychologie morale, je m’intéresse au rôle de l’imagination dans la perception morale. Je soutiens que l’imagination y a une fonction épistémique dans la mesure où – en s’accompagnant ou non d’émotions – elle nous révèle des normes, des valeurs ou des vertus morales qui seraient autrement passées inaperçues. En simulant des croyances et des perceptions, l’imagination nous permet d’accéder à ces caractéristiques d’une situation moralement pertinentes, mais perceptuellement non saillantes. J’identifie trois modes de « perception morale imaginative » : 1) la prise de perspective qui consiste à endosser le point de vue d’autrui, 2) le cadrage imaginatif qui désigne le fait de voir un élément d’une situation comme autre qu’il n’est et, 3) la comparaison imaginative qui, grâce à la pensée contrefactuelle, éclaire le monde actuel à partir d’un monde possible imaginé. Chacun de ces modes contribue à enrichir notre connaissance morale, et partant, à améliorer notre délibération morale. J’appuie ma démonstration sur des travaux récents en philosophie de la psychologie, en psychologie cognitive et sociale, en neuropsychologie et, bien évidemment, en psychologie morale. / My thesis focuses on the role of imagination for moral perception. I argue that imagination – whether accompanied by emotion or not - has an epistemic role inasmuch as it can reveal moral norms, values, and virtues that might otherwise go un-noticed. On the simulationist account, belief-like imaginings and perception-like imaginings give us access to the morally relevant but perceptually non-salient features of a situation. I identify three types of “imaginative moral perception”: 1) the perspective taking that consists of putting yourself in someone else’s shoes; 2) the imaginative framing, which refers to seeing an element of a situation as something else; 3) the imaginative comparison, which sheds light on the actual world by using counterfactuals thinking that give us access to a possible world. Each of these types of moral perception contributes to enhancing our moral knowledge hence to improving our moral deliberation. My argument appeals to recent contributions from the fields of philosophy of psychology, cognitive and social psychology, neuropsychology and, of course, moral psychology.

The Philebus is devoted to the question what constitutes the good for a human being. Although Socrates initially favors a life of pure intelligence against the hedonist’s life of pure pleasure, he quickly concedes that some pleasures actually enhance the life of intelligence. In order to determine which pleasures deserve a place in the best life, Socrates undertakes a lengthy investigation into the nature of pleasure. Commentators have long been frustrated in their attempt to uncover a single, unified account that explains in a plausible way the extraordinary variety of pleasures analyzed in the dialogue. I argue that this search for a generic account of pleasure is misguided, because one of the main purposes of Socrates’ division of pleasure is to expose its essentially heterogeneous nature. Pleasures can be bodily or psychic, pure or mixed with pain, truth apt or not, healthy or diseased, and inherently measured or unmeasured, and there are no essential properties which all of these diverse phenomena share. The inclusion of some pleasures in the final ranking of the goods at the end of the Philebus represents a dramatic shift in Plato’s attitude towards certain pleasures, and so it is not surprising that many scholars misinterpret the force of this conclusion. Even in the Republic where the pleasures of reason are favorably compared to the pleasures of spirit and appetite, intellectual pleasures are judged to be more pleasant and real than other pleasures, but they are nowhere judged to be better or praised as genuine goods. In the Philebus, not only are some pleasures unambiguously ranked among the highest goods, but Socrates gives no indication that these pleasures are good only in some qualified or extrinsic way. Instead, certain pleasures make their own positive contribution to the goodness of the best human life, making the mixed life more valuable and choiceworthy than the unmixed life of intelligence.

[pt] O tema da normatividade desde sempre foi tido como misterioso. Muitas explicações foram dadas sobre o fenômeno em diversos âmbitos do saber, embora nenhuma em definitivo. Quando se trata da normatividade jurídica não é diferente. Com o objetivo de trazer novas luzes sobre o nebuloso assunto, o ponto de partida da presente investigação é o conceito de afirmações internas do direito, tal como formulado por Herbert L. A. Hart. Por meio de uma análise sociolinguística, o autor propõe que tais enunciados comprometidos com o direito sejam vistos como expressões da aceitação de certas regras. No entanto, o autor não vai muito além em pontos importantes e alguns questionamentos surgem tanto sobre a melhor leitura de certos conceitos na obra de Hart, quanto em relação a real capacidade de sua teoria dar conta do tema. Há evidências nos escritos do autor que permitem dizer que a sua proposta é bastante semelhante à ideia de expressivismo de normas, tal como formulado por Allan Gibbard no campo da metaética. Essa linha teórica aparece como uma versão sofisticada de não-cognitivismo e, portanto, entende que os termos normativos são geralmente utilizados na linguagem ordinária para expressar um estado conativo, um estado mental diferente de uma crença, e que, portanto, não possui aptidão de verdade. Pretende-se demonstrar que tal postura, expressivista, é bastante atraente para o filósofo do direito, pois consegue explicar tanto as afirmações internas do direito como o elo implícito com a ideia de normatividade. Além disso, essa perspectiva é capaz de responder às críticas que teóricos rivais (cognitivistas) formularam sobre a construção conceitual hartiana. Por meio da análise da superação por parte dos autores expressivistas de argumentos tradicionais do campo da metaética é possível deixar mais sólida a posição dentro da teoria do direito, bem como transferir o ônus argumentativo para os oponentes da posição. Por fim, será sugerida interpretação sobre o mecanismo psicológico e social por detrás do expressivismo de normas. O recente corpo de evidência científica parece fornecer uma licença para o otimismo em favor do expressivismo em relação à capacidade de se desvendar o mistério da normatividade. / [en] Normativity has Always been taken as something mysterious. Many explanations from a range of different areas were given about this phenomenon, though, no definitive one. Legal normativity is no different. Aiming to bring new lights to this cloudy subject, the starting point of the present investigation is Hebert L. A. Hart s concept of internal legal statements. Through a sociolinguistic analysis, the author claims that such statements committed with the law are to be seen as expressions of rule s acceptance. Nevertheless, Hart does not go further and a lot of relevant points and questions arise both about the best way to read his work and on the real explanatory power of his theory. There are evidences in his writings that allow us to read his theory in a very similar way to Allan Gibbard s metaethics one. This line of though seems to be a sophisticated version of a non-cognitivism and, therefore, sees normative terms as used to express conative states of mind. These mental states are different from a belief and hence cannot have truth aptness. We intend to show that such theoretical posture, expressivist, is very alluring for the legal philosopher, since it can explain the internal legal claims and its implicit relationship with normativity. Further, this perspective is capable of answering critics posed by cognitivists about Hart s conceptual work. By means of an analysis of how expressivism can answer traditional metaethical questions, it is possible to make the legal expressivist position even more solid, and to switch the argumentative burden to opponent side of the dispute. Lastly, we will indicate an interpretation of a social and psychological background mechanism to norm expressivism. The recent body of scientific evidence provides a license for optimism in favor of expressism s ability to unveil the mystery of normativity.