Lying to others, lying to yourself, and literal self-deception.

This paper examines the connection between lies, deception, and self-deception. Understanding this connection is important because the consensus is that you cannot deceive yourself by lying since you cannot make yourself believe as true a proposition you already believe is false – and, as a liar, you must assert a proposition you believe is false. My solution involves refining our analysis of lying: people can lie by asserting what they confidently believe is <italic>true</italic>. Thus, self-deceivers need not replace one belief with another; rather, they may just increase existing credence in a proposition they already believe is true. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]