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Single Idea 12602

[filed under theme 15. Nature of Minds / A. Nature of Mind / 6. Anti-Individualism ]

Full Idea

There is no natural border between inner and outer.

Gist of Idea

There is no natural border between inner and outer

Source

Gilbert Harman ((Nonsolipsistic) Conceptual Role Semantics [1987], 12.3.4)

Book Ref

Harman,Gilbert: 'Reasoning Meaning and Mind' [OUP 1999], p.224


A Reaction

Perhaps this is the key idea for the anti-individualist view of mind. Subjectively I would have to accept this idea, but looking objectively at another person it seems self-evident nonsense.


The 12 ideas with the same theme [individuation of minds must also refer to externals]:

In a way the soul is everything which exists, through its perceptions and thoughts [Aristotle]
Memory is so vast that I cannot recognise it as part of my mind [Augustine]
When Dasein grasps something it exists externally alongside the thing [Heidegger]
There is no natural border between inner and outer [Harman]
We can only describe mental attitudes in relation to the external world [Harman]
Anti-individualism says the environment is involved in the individuation of some mental states [Burge]
Broad concepts suggest an extension of the mind into the environment (less computer-like) [Burge]
A mechanism can count as 'cognitive' whether it is in the brain or outside it [Clark/Chalmers, by Rowlands]
If something in the world could equally have been a mental process, it is part of our cognition [Clark/Chalmers]
Consciousness may not extend beyond the head, but cognition need not be conscious [Clark/Chalmers]
Content externalism implies that we do not have privileged access to our own minds [Rowlands]
If someone is secretly transported to Twin Earth, others know their thoughts better than they do [Rowlands]