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RESEARCH PRODUCT

The Mud of Experience and Modes of Awareness

subject

description

In *Authority and Estrangement* Richard Moran takes some rather illuminating steps towards getting rid of the Cartesian picture of self-knowledge. I argue, however, that Moran¿s crucial distinction between delib- erative and theoretical attitude is seriously contaminated by that traditional picture. More specifically, I will point out why some crucial aspects of the phenomena that Moran describes in terms of the interplay be- tween the theoretical and the deliberative attitude, should rather be interpreted as a process that takes place within the deliberative attitude itself. The theoretical attitude will, as a result, constitute a rather marginal at- titude towards one¿s own psychological dispositions and experiences, the adoption of which only makes sense in rather peculiar, often pathological, situations.