Criteria, Perception, and Other Minds

Abstract

In the first section of this paper I will look briefly at one of the reasons why criteria do not provide a quick solution to the problem of other minds. I will then develop a more illuminating account (for epistemological purposes) of the relationship between the behavior and minds of others. In the final section I will attempt to supply what needs to be added to any account of this relationship to solve the epistemological problem.By the “problem of other minds” I mean the skeptical questions as to how and whether we know that others are having certain thoughts, experiencing certain feelings or emotions, in one or another mental state, and so on. Suppose that:-A baseball player has just been called out on strikes. The game is the most important one of the year for the team and the player's performance will have a direct bearing on the outcome of his contract negotiations for the following year.