Can I know what another person is thinking or feeling? If so, how? :: essays papers

Can I know what an early(a) person is persuasion or feeling? If so, how?The problem of Other Minds is a true philosophical enigma. It is apt to strike children with no philosophical education whatsoever, yet remains balky to many academics. Broadly speaking, the problem rouse be divided into three questions. Firstly, how doI come to believe that there are minds in the mankind other than my own? Secondly, how can I justify my belief that there are minds in the worldother than my own? Thirdly, what can I plead about the mental states ofminds other than my own?. The question we are dealing with here fallslargely into the third category, although of course issues relating to theother two pull up stakes also be involved. Firstly, it is imperative to assert that, in looking for knowledge, weare not aiming for logical certainties - we are not aiming to show thatany propositions about other minds can be demonstrated with absolutecertainty equivalent to that of mathematical truths. Phi losophy eversince Descartes has tended to be defined by scepticism either it aims to go sceptical theories or it aims to refute them. And sceptics tendtowards extremity in their doubts. It must be stated here and now thatthere are not, and never can be, any theories that prove demonstrativelythat other minds exist, or that I know others mental states. This is notwhat should be aimed at in look foring to solve the problem. As capital of Texas putsit To suppose that the question How do I know that Tom is angry? ismeant to mean How do I introspect Toms feelings? is simply barking upthe wrong gum-tree. most(prenominal) philosophers agree that their theories only bestow a greater orlesser amount of probability onto statements about other minds (althoughthere are exceptions, e.g. Peter Strawsons attempt to arguetranscendentally for the existence of other minds through our ownself-consciousness). There have been a number of different attempts to dothis. J.S. Mill, who produced the first known manifestation of the OtherMinds problem, used the so-called Argument from Analogy both to explainhow we come to believe in other minds and to justify this belief. Briefly,the argument holds that I am directly apprised of mental states in myself,and I am aware of the behaviour of mine that results from and is caused bythese mental states. As I can observe similar physiologic behaviour inothers, I draw the analogy that it is caused by the same (or at leastsimilar) mental states to my own.