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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 Ref
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?
| 1799 | If we can't know minds, we can't know if Pyrrho was a sceptic [Theodosius, by Diog. Laertius] |
| 7125 | A consciousness can conceive of no other consciousness than itself [Sartre] |
| 7122 | We can never, even in principle, grasp other minds, because the Ego is self-conceiving [Sartre] |
| 5662 | Maybe induction could never prove the existence of something unobservable [Ayer] |
| 5177 | Other minds are 'metaphysical' objects, because I can never observe their experiences [Ayer] |
| 8866 | If we know other minds through behaviour, but not our own, we should assume they aren't like me [Davidson] |