Talking to Our Selves
Reflection, Ignorance, and Agency
John M. Doris
Reviews and Awards
"Talking to Our Selves should appeal to all kinds of readers, philosophers and psychologists, students and the general public. For those who are aware of the current state of affairs, Doris is careful to situate his views with respect to other researchers and positions. It's an excellent model for those pursuing work at the intersection of philosophy and social science. But even for those who have not been following contemporary philosophy in this area, by focusing on the bigger picture, Doris has written an accessible and engaging book and one which gives the reader a sense of where empirical philosophy is headed." -- Emily Esch, Metapsychology Online Reviews
"This is a valuable book. It reminds us, with striking real-life evidence, just how hidden we often are from ourselves. Whether this evidence is compatible with our being morally responsible agents is the next important conversation agency theorists ought to have, and we should be grateful to Doris for sparking it in such a bold, original, and colorful way." -- Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews Online
"Talking to Our Selves is well-written and well-argued. And the wide-ranging evidence he considers makes for a very interesting and stimulating read. Moreover, its topic, the nature of human agency and moral responsibility, connects directly to the important question of what it means to be human...the theory deserves to be taken seriously, to be engaged and further developed, and to become an important part of our ongoing project of understanding ourselves." -- Metapsychology Online Reviews
"An informative and much-needed perspective on the hard questions of agency, responsibility, and conscious action.... This is an excellent book and would make an excellent text for a course or course segment on the nature of moral responsibility." --PsycCRITIQUES
"I found Doris's idea that agency can be exercised in ways beyond reflection compelling. A pluralistic approach to agency (and responsibility) is attractive if people's actions and judgments are not always based in reflective thought. In addition, the examples from psychological research he presents make reading his book a pleasure." -- Philosophical Psychology
