Q&A: Other Minds
Other Minds
Question
Hello Rabbi,
I wanted to ask the Rabbi: do we have any reason to believe that other people have consciousness?! After all, how can we make an analogy from just a single case to the existence of billions of other people?
And on the other hand, it seems so obvious that they do have consciousness, but every way of inferring it feels insufficiently responsible and rational!!
Does the Rabbi know of a proper solution to this problem?
K.
Answer
It is not based on just a single case. Through my acquaintance with what is within me, I identify the phenomenon even when it stands before me. You can also cast doubt on the reliability of my perception, which is not based even on one case, and nobody has any answer to that, just as with any other skeptical argument. There is no proper solution to the problem for someone who is troubled by it. And someone who is not troubled by it neither looks for nor needs solutions.
Discussion on Answer
It seems to me that I spoke quite clearly. When I look at the people before me, I see that they have consciousness. I do not see it with my eyes but with my understanding (which is aided by analogy to what I know from within myself). That is all. If I cast doubt on my perceptions, then you have no satisfactory answer to that. But then you must also cast doubt on your eyesight (whose reliability is based on 0 examples, since all the examples you know are brought to you through your sensory system). And if I do not cast doubt, then I do not need to look for answers.
That is it. I have exhausted the point.
So in practice, I know with the “eyes of the intellect” that they have consciousness?
Because if it is only by means of analogy, then how do I know whether the analogy I made is actually correct? But if I see that that person has consciousness, or that I identify an idea of consciousness operating in him, etc., then there is reason to assume so.
So I did not really understand what you meant.
Yes. The analogy is part of that same discernment by the eyes of the intellect.
What does it mean to identify a phenomenon that is standing before me?
I cannot identify what is before me the way I do by using my eyes.
The only possibility is to make an analogy from what I know –> to what is before me. But an analogy from one case is very, very unreliable.
The argument you raised, that I have never properly examined my whole sensory system, is not correct, because I can “know” and assume that my overall sensory system is reliable. Here I am making an analogy; that is a tool that is not well-founded and is very, very uncertain, especially from just one case!
So your claim is still not clear to me. I would be glad if you could expand a bit.