Other Minds Essay Research Paper The problem

Other Minds Essay, Research Paper

The problem of Other Minds is a true

philosophical enigma. It is apt to strike children with no philosophical

education whatsoever, yet remains intractable to many academics. Broadly

speaking, the problem can be divided into three questions. Firstly, how do

I come to believe that there are minds in the world other than my own.

Secondly, how can I justify my belief that there are minds in the world

other than my own. Thirdly, what can I state about the mental states of

minds other than my own.. The question we are dealing with here falls

largely into the third category, although of course issues relating to the

other two will also be involved.

Firstly, it is imperative to assert that, in looking for .knowledge., we

are not aiming for logical certainties – we are not aiming to show that

any propositions about other minds can be demonstrated with absolute

certainty equivalent to that of mathematical truths. Philosophy ever

since Descartes has tended to be defined by scepticism: either it aims to

produce sceptical theories or it aims to refute them. And sceptics tend

towards extremity in their doubts. It must be stated here and now that

there are not, and never can be, any theories that prove demonstratively

that other minds exist, or that I know others. mental states. This is not

what should be aimed at in attempting to solve the problem. As Austin puts

it “To suppose that the question .How do I know that Tom is angry.. is

meant to mean .How do I introspect Tom.s feelings.. is simply barking up

the wrong gum-tree.”

Most philosophers agree that their theories only bestow a greater or

lesser amount of probability onto statements about other minds (although

there are exceptions, e.g. Peter Strawson.s attempt to argue

transcendentally for the existence of other minds through our own

self-consciousness). There have been a number of different attempts to do

this. J.S. Mill, who produced the first known formulation of the Other

Minds problem, used the so-called .Argument from Analogy. both to explain

how we come to believe in other minds and to justify this belief. Briefly,

the argument holds that I am directly aware of mental states in myself,

and I am aware of the behaviour of mine that results from and is caused by

these mental states. As I can observe similar physical behaviour in

others, I draw the analogy that it is caused by the same (or at least

similar) mental states to my own. As in all arguments from analogy, I

assume that because x is similar to y in some respects, it will be similar

in others. So as I know how I behave if I am feeling, say, angry, I assume

in someone else.s case that his behaviour is an indication of the mental

state I call .anger.. My opinion in this respect is aided by the fact that

most humans. behaviour when they claim to be angry is broadly similar.

The argument from analogy, also employed by Bertrand Russell in a slightly

simplified form, is subject to a devastating criticism. Unlike most

analogies, in the case of other minds, there is no conceivable way of

verifying the conclusion we make. We have no way of discovering whether

someone else is angry or not, and our position means that this is a

necessary disadvantage. The only way to have someone else.s experiences

would to become that person, and in doing that, I would no longer be

myself and I would no longer be having someone else.s experiences. Thus it

is impossible to conceive of any set of experimental circumstances under

which I would be able to ascertain whether or not the human who is

expressing anger-behaviour really is angry or not. And as Norman Malcolm

has pointed out, as there are no conceivable criteria I could use to

determine whether someone is angry or not, simply claiming that they are

angry is a meaningless statement.

Many philosophers, perceiving this fatal flaw in the argument from

analogy, have attempted to produce theories on other minds that are not

based on analogy. Malcolm himself held that the problem lies in the belief

that in looking for evidence of other minds, we need to start off from our

own case and then look for evidence that other cases resemble my own in

other humans. He claimed, characteristically following Wittgenstein, that

statements about mental states in others have no .special. status but

rather that they are .primitive, natural expressions. of the state in

question. In other words, ‘my leg hurts’ is equivalent to non-verbal

behavioural expressions of having a painful leg such as crying, limping,

or holding my leg. The statements are not propositions as such, and so

have no .truth-value.. In my view, there are huge problems with this

account. Firstly, its explanatory power is exceedingly limited as it makes

no distinction between those who are pretending to be in a

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