Tags / 4 quotes from 1 source
#other-minds
Mind: A Brief Introduction (John R. Searle)
Three grades of solipsism
The view that I am the only person who has mental states is called “solipsism.” Solipsism comes in at least three different grades. One, the most extreme form: I am the only person in the world who has mental states; and indeed in some forms, nothing exists in the world except…
Other minds and the external world
The skepticism about other minds that follows from Cartesian dualism is just a special case of a much more general kind of skepticism: skepticism about the existence of the external world.
The argument from analogy lacks an independent check
According to the argument from analogy, I infer the existence of mental states in other people, by analogy with myself. Just as I observe a correlation of my own behavior with my mental states, so I can infer the presence of appropriate mental states in others when I observe…
How I know my dog is conscious
I think the answer is that the basis on which I am confident that my dog is conscious and has a specific content to his consciousness is not simply that his behavior is appropriate, but that I can see that the causal underpinnings of the behavior are relatively similar to mine…