Search results for "Problem of other minds"
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The Problem of Mind and Other Minds in William James’s Pragmatism
2008
The chapter explicates William James’s pragmatist conception of the human mind and his way of approaching the problem of other minds. James’s pragmatism is usually classified among empiricist and associationist philosophies of mind, but as is shown, it can also be understood according to its Kantian features. In James’s view, the mind is really an active and a purpose-oriented organizing principle which structures our lifeworld. The main difference between James’s pragmatism and Kant’s transcendental philosophy is that James does not make any explicit distinction between psychological and philosophical inquiries into the mind; he based his philosophy of mind on the same introspective method…
Wittgenstein’s “Inner and Outer”: Overcoming Epistemic Asymmetry
2013
In this article, I identify three ways in which Wittgenstein opposed an idea of epistemic asymmetry between the first person and the secondor-third person. Examining the questions of 1) absence of doubt about my own experience and uncertainty about the experiences of others, 2) ineffability of subjective experience and 3) immediacy of my knowledge of my own experience contrasted with my merely inferential knowledge about the experiences of others, I see Wittgenstein’s remarks about “inner and outer” as a many-faceted denial of the claim that people’s minds are in some deep way unknowable to others. These considerations also serve to clarify Wittgenstein’s relation to behaviorism. 1. Wittgen…