Single Idea 7125

[catalogued under 15. Nature of Minds / A. Nature of Mind / 4. Other Minds / b. Scepticism of other minds]

Full Idea

A consciousness can conceive of no other consciousness than itself.

Gist of Idea

A consciousness can conceive of no other consciousness than itself

Source

Jean-Paul Sartre (Transcendence of the Ego [1937], Conc (1))

Book Reference

Sartre,Jean-Paul: 'The Transcendence of the Ego' [Routledge 2004], p.45


A Reaction

This is why we don't know what it is like to be a bat. This seems right, though it looks like a contingent truth, and yet Sartre seems to offer it as a necessary truth. Can God conceive of my consciousness?