[214] Self-knowledge for Humans By Quassim Cassam

[214] Self-knowledge for Humans By Quassim Cassam

From Branches of Philosophy Podcast by Philosophy Cognitive Science

September 18, 2025 · 1h 2m · Episode 214

About this episode

This episode discusses Quassim Cassam's book 'Self-knowledge for Humans', exploring the complexities of human self-knowledge and the influences on our beliefs and desires.

Ai generated & human edited. Introduction and summary of "Self-knowledge for Humans" By Quassim Cassam 2014 Human beings are not model epistemic citizens. Our reasoning can be careless and uncritical, and our beliefs, desires, and other attitudes aren't always as they ought rationally to be. Our beliefs can be eccentric, our desires irrational and our hopes hopelessly unrealistic. Our attitudes are influenced by a wide range of non-epistemic or non-rational factors, including our character, our emotions and powerful unconscious biases. Yet we are rarely conscious of such influences. Self-ignorance is not something to which human beings are immune. In this book Quassim Cassam develops an account of self-knowledge which tries to do justice to these and other respects in which humans aren't model epistemic citizens. He rejects rationalist and other mainstream philosophical accounts of self-knowledge on the grounds that, in more than one sense, they aren't accounts of self-knowledge for humans. Instead he defends the view that inferences from behavioural and psychological evidence are a basic source of human self-knowledge. On this account, self-knowledge is a genuine…

People in this episode

Guest: Quassim Cassam

Topics covered

  • self-knowledge
  • epistemology
  • human reasoning
  • philosophy
  • cognitive biases

Keywords

  • self-knowledge
  • epistemic citizens
  • rationality
  • cognitive achievement
  • philosophical accounts

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