The Problem of Other Minds - A Philosophical Inquiry

Running head: THE PROBLEM OF OTHER MINDS
THE PROBLEM OF OTHER MINDS
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1THE PROBLEM OF OTHER MINDS
The problem of other mind is a philosophical problem which is the concern of the
philosophical sceptics. The problem is the challenges to understand the presence of mentality of
other human beings (Carruthers, 2013). The problem of the other mind as said by Mills is the
discussion of the paper. It is assumed that every human being is likely to be similar to each other
however the sceptical philosophers do not have the same perception. Although people believe
that other people apart from them experience life as much as they do, they ensure that they are
unaware of the other people’s inner lives on details. The philosophers identify this issue as the
“other minds”. The philosophers believe that the problem with the other mind is related to the
significant question of what makes the humans think that other human beings do have inner lives
even not knowing the situation of their inner lives. There are two problems with the other minds
identified by the philosophers (Bunge, 2014).
There is the epistemological problem and conceptual problem. The epistemological
problem emphasis on beliefs about mental states apart from our own might be justified. The
conceptual problem emphasis on the ways one can form a concept of psychological state apart
from the individual. The conceptual problem is usually highlighted to solve the epistemological
problem (Birks & Mills, 2015). The difference between the access to our own experience and
access to other human being is the concern of epistemological problem. People understand
vividly when one is in a particular mental state. People are conscious of their activities such as
eating, walking and talking, however, not always people are having the direct knowledge of their
mental state. The notable fact is people never have any direct knowledge of other human being’s
mental state. It is this problem of asymmetrical understanding of human psychological state that
raises the epistemological issue (Overgaard, 2013). The asymmetry is between the directly
known knowledge and not known knowledge directly. The difference between directly known

2THE PROBLEM OF OTHER MINDS
knowledge of own self and other person is the issue. It is not the problem to not know the direct
understanding of oneself but the not knowing direct knowledge of another human being. What
one needs is the ability to know the other human being and their mental state in precisely the
same way the other person possesses knowledge. In the real life, this is an impossible scenario. It
is a notable factor that it is not the direct knowledge or the direct observation that relevantly
essential. Even if people have the direct knowledge of the inner lives of others they would still
not know if those persons have an inner life or not. Human beings always need what they do not
have. People would directly know that the other person is having pain but that would not have
known that indeed someone is going through pain. Therefore, the inequality that raises the
epistemological issue of other minds is that every person will know directly the mental state they
are in whereas the knowledge of other’s mental state is never known by anyone other than the
person experiencing it.
The conceptual problem is similar to the epistemological problem. Having the direct
knowledge bases on own experiences, people would not be able to acquire the concepts of
mental states belonging to other human beings excluding oneself (Soames & Frodeman, 2016).
The problem is not observing the people’s pain or experiences. It is the requirement for the
problem not to arise to perceive such pains and experiences as the other people. The conceptual
problem may arise when one wishes to know about an experience without experiencing it.
The presentation of the solution to the other mind was first represented by John Stuart
Mill (Broad, 2014). The first solution to the problem of other mind has been the analogical
inferences to other minds. This is a simple way of believing that other people have the same
mind as each person has (Gallagher & Zahavi, 2013). When a person is in wounded, that person
goes through pain and this is not an assumption as the other human being, made up of the same