The problem of other minds is a philosophical problem traditionally stated as the following epistemological question: Given that I can only observe the behavior of others, how can I know that others have minds?[1] It is a major issue of the philosophical idea known as solipsism: the notion that for any person only one's own mind is known to exist. Solipsism maintains that no matter how sophisticated someone's behavior is, behavior on its own does not guarantee the presence of mentality.
See also
- Animal consciousness
- Boltzmann brain
- Brain in a vat
- Chinese room
- Dream argument
- Explanatory gap
- Hard problem of consciousness
- Mind–body problem
- Mirror neuron
- Philosophical skepticism
- Philosophical zombie
- Philosophy of mind
- Psychophysics
- Qualia
- Turing test
References
- ^ Hyslop, Alec (14 January 2014). Zalta, Edward N.; Nodelman, Uri (eds.). "Other minds". Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Metaphysics Research Lab, Center for the Study of Language and Information, Stanford University. ISSN 1095-5054. Retrieved May 26, 2015.
Further reading
- Godfrey-Smith, Peter (2016). Other minds: the octopus, the sea, and the deep origins of consciousness. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux. ISBN 9780374227760. OCLC 957696590.
- Inami, Masahiro (August 2001). "The problem of other minds in the Buddhist epistemological tradition". Journal of Indian Philosophy. 29 (4): 465–483. doi:10.1023/A:1013151011789. JSTOR 23496930.
- Avramides, Anita (2001). Other minds. The problems of philosophy. London; New York: Routledge. doi:10.4324/9780203870174. ISBN 0415033365. OCLC 44613007.
- Dennett, Daniel C. (2017) [1978]. Brainstorms: philosophical essays on mind and psychology. A Bradford book (40th anniversary ed.). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. doi:10.7551/mitpress/11146.001.0001. ISBN 9780262534383. OCLC 988171852.
- Buford, Thomas O., ed. (1970). Essays on other minds. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press. ISBN 0252001230. OCLC 133061.
- Plantinga, Alvin (1967). God and other minds: a study of the rational justification of belief in God. Contemporary philosophy. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. OCLC 383698.
- Wisdom, John (1966) [1952]. Other minds (2nd ed.). Oxford: Blackwell. OCLC 1076880.
External links
- Problem of other minds at PhilPapers
- Zalta, Edward N. (ed.). "Other minds". Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
- Problem of other minds at the Indiana Philosophy Ontology Project
- "Problem of other minds". Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.