What is compelled assent?

Here's a quote from the Stanford Encyclopedia Philosophy page on Descartes:<br><br>>tl;dr: René Descartes (1596–1650) was a French philosopher and mathematician, widely regarded as the father of modern western philosophy. <br><br>>At one point, Descartes was concentrating on the motions of the eyes of an automaton on display in Holland. He began wondering if it were possible that he, Descartes, was only a more complex automaton. He knew that he was not an automaton. Now "I want to be certain" is not a sufficient reason to assent to an idea. It's like someone who wants to be a millionaire who says, "I'm going to try extra hard to believe that I am lucky and will win the lottery." But "I'm trying to figure out whether or not I am lucky" IS a good reason to assent. Similarly, "I want not to be an automaton" is not a sufficient reason to assent to the idea that one is not an automaton. But "I want to figure out whether or not I am an automaton" is sufficient. <br><br>>What if he were somehow tricked into thinking he was not an automaton? Perhaps he's just an automaton who has no understanding of his programming, and he's been fooled into thinking he is not an automaton. Is that possible? He knows for a fact that he is not an automaton, but what if he is wrong? This is similar to the lottery example, but stronger. In the lottery example, someone is persuaded to think they are lucky because they feel lucky, but that's weak evidence. Descartes is rather saying, "I am so sure I'm not an automaton, that I will entertain the idea, I am programmed to think I am not an automaton, only because I am an extremely programmed automaton." Even if he were a programmed automaton, he would still have very strong reasons for assenting that he is not an automaton. This is known as **compelled assent**, or, in some cases, **involuntary assent**.