Unconscious goals: Specific or unspecific? The potential harm of the goal/gene analogy

Behavioral and Brain Sciences 37 (2):152-153 (2014)
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Abstract

Huang and Bargh’s definition of goals is ambiguous between ‘specific goals’ – the end-state of a token action I am about to perform – and ‘unspecific goals’ – the end-state of an action-type (without specifying how this would be achieved). The analogy with selfish genes pushes the authors towards the former interpretation, but the latter would provide a more robust theoretical framework.

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10.1017/s0140525x13002124

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Bence Nanay
University of Antwerp

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The replicator in retrospect.Peter Godfrey-Smith - 2000 - Biology and Philosophy 15 (3):403-423.
Replication without replicators.Bence Nanay - 2011 - Synthese 179 (3):455-477.

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