What is it about?
The present paper aims to contest the widely held view that the minds of others are invisible. On the contrary the minds of others are visible, but not in the same way as tables and chairs. What leads to the misconception is a misapplication of the otherwise laudable idea that the mind is not a supernatural entity, but, in some sense, part of the natural world.
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Why is it important?
The paper is important in overturning the orthodoxy that suggests we are all ultimately unknown. It argues for the advantages of liberal naturalism over scientific naturalism as a way of accommodating a more realistic vision of other minds and our relation to them. On the the liberal naturalist account, minds are non-supernatural non-scientific entities which are expressed in bodily behaviour, gestures, and facial expressions.
Perspectives
This paper is important to me in showing that liberal naturalism provides the resources to undermine forms of skepticism which have their roots in scientism i.e. the outlook that sees all knowledge as scientific knowledge and which treats all realities as posits of successful scientific explanation.
David Macarthur
The University of Sydney
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Skepticism and Naturalism of Other Minds: Remarks on the (In)visibility of Other Minds, September 2022, De Gruyter,
DOI: 10.1163/9789004525474_007.
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