Self-deception, naturalism and certainty

prolegomena to a critical hermeneutics

pp. 172-189

in: Allan Janik, Style, politics and the future of philosophy, Berlin, Springer, 1989

Abstract

What will offend simple minds is that my plot is not simple, nor is its point of view single. In real life an action — this, by the way, is a somewhat new discovery — is generally caused by a whole series of motives, more or less fundamental, but as a rule the spectator chooses just one of these — the one which he can most easily grasp or the one that does most credit to his intelligence.1