WIPS

Reasoning without Control

Abstract:

Reasoning is typically thought to require the agent’s control (e.g., Kahneman 2011, Boghossian 2014, McHugh 2017). This requirement is motivated by the ideas that 1) reasoning involves agency, and 2) agents are responsible for their reasoning. I argue that reasoning does not in fact require control. I consider a series of psychological experiments and show how each evinces reasoning without control, in the senses of voluntary, managerial (Hieronymi 2006), and attitudinal (McHugh 2017) control. Thus, our agency over and responsibility for our reasoning cannot be explained by control. I suggest we can instead explain agency and epistemic responsibility by the way in which reasoning reflects our character, independent of control.