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Single Idea 3850

[filed under theme 15. Nature of Minds / A. Nature of Mind / 4. Other Minds / c. Knowing other minds ]

Full Idea

It is not only oneself that one discovers in the Cogito, but those of others too.

Gist of Idea

We discovers others as well as ourselves in the Cogito

Source

comment on René Descartes (Meditations [1641], §2) by Jean-Paul Sartre - Existentialism and Humanism p.45

Book Ref

Sartre,Jean-Paul: 'Existentialism and Humanism', ed/tr. Mairet,Philip [Methuen 1980], p.45


A Reaction

The analytical tradition requires a bit more than an instant perception of others in oneself. The problem of 'other minds' must at least be mentioned. However, the way to get to know a universal is to fully study a single instance.


The 22 ideas with the same theme [how we might know of other minds]:

We discovers others as well as ourselves in the Cogito [Sartre on Descartes]
We are satisfied that other men have minds, from their words and actions [Locke]
Experience tells me that other minds exist independently from my own [Berkeley]
I know other minds by ideas which are referred by me to other agents, as their effects [Berkeley]
Husserl's monads (egos) communicate, through acts of empathy. [Husserl, by Velarde-Mayol]
We know another's mind via bodily expression, while also knowing it is inaccessible [Husserl, by Bernet]
Other minds seem to exist, because their testimony supports realism about the world [Russell, by Grayling]
It is hard not to believe that speaking humans are expressing thoughts, just as we do ourselves [Russell]
Dasein finds itself already amongst others [Heidegger, by Caputo]
If we work and play with other people, they are bound to be 'Dasein', intelligent agents [Heidegger, by Cooper,DE]
I don't have the opinion that people have minds; I just treat them as such [Wittgenstein]
Originally I combined a mentalistic view of introspection with a behaviouristic view of other minds [Ayer]
Physicalism undercuts the other mind problem, by equating experience with 'public' brain events [Ayer]
The theory of other minds has no rival [Ayer]
The argument from analogy fails, so the best account of other minds is behaviouristic [Ayer]
A conscious object is by definition one that behaves in a certain way, so behaviour proves consciousness [Ayer]
Knowing other minds rests on knowing both one's own mind and the external world [Davidson, by Dummett]
We don't have a "theory" that other people have minds [Searle]
Young children can see that other individuals sometimes have false beliefs [Papineau]
Do we understand other minds by simulation-theory, or by theory-theory? [Papineau]
We know other's emotions by explanation, contagion, empathy, imagination, or sympathy [Goldie]
Empathy and imagining don't ensure sympathy, and sympathy doesn't need them [Goldie]