A Philosophical Research On The Logic Of Knowing Self And Other Minds

The issues of mind are no doubt the great controversy themes in the philosophy field. With the birth, development and growth of philosophy of mind and cognition science, the mind recognition problems about oneself and others arouse people's growing interests. There is no doubt that the theory of mind has close relationship with cognitivism, epistemology and language philosophy. If the language philosophy is the focus of the 20th century, then the philosophy of mind will be the leading role on the philosophy stage of the 21st century. A perennial problem in philosophy of mind is how we understand self and others. In fact, mind, language and meaning are not quite distinct, but closely connected. Therefore the analysis and understanding of mind could not do without the analysis of language, and vice verse. In this thesis, the research of mind and other mind matters is further analyzed from the perspective of internalism and externalism; the solving models of other mind cognition matters in modern mind philosophy are comparatively analyzed, particularly functionism and simulation theory are discussed.The chapters are arranged as following:Chapter 1 is the introduction of mind and other minds matters. It mainly introduces the philosophical origin and development of mind matters, and then demonstrates some research and controversies of mind and other mind matters in current western philosophy. Moreover, it generally introduces the current mind philosophy, especially about the research of mind and other mind in this thesis, the problems of which have been analyzed.Chapter 2 is the perspective exploration on the research of mind and other minds mainly through perspective discussion of the first person and the third person. The first person perspective is an ideal traditional introspective way of thinking of mind led by Descartes, which holds that "I" have a priority in knowing the content while discussing the viewpoint of Davidson. The third person perspective relates to some viewpoints of logical empiricism that mind phenomena can be better understood in a new way of physical processes. They can be judged by empirical propositions, otherwise they can be rejected or removed.Chapter 3 and Chapter 4 are mainly the analysis of the source of psychological phenomena in terms of some prominent viewpoints of mind content in the current language and mind philosophy. Internalists believe that it is the inherent nature or process of our brain and body that determines mind, rather than the external environment. Opposed to internalism is externalism. Externalists believe that mind is not only determined by the inherent nature or process of our brains and bodies, but intentions and affections included in mind content are determined by the external physical environment and social environment. The two chapters mainly introduce and briefly compare the different viewpoints of externalism in mind and language proposed by some philosophers, like H.Putnam, D.Davidson, and T.Burge. Different standpoints have obvious and direct effects on the exploring models in mind and other mind.Chapter 5 is the contrast discussion of mind, language and the meaning of world. Language and mind are the two most controversial and academically achievable fields in current western philosophy, especially in analytical philosophy. Many influential philosophers, like Searle, Davidson, Burge, Chomsky have made remarkable achievements in these aspects. And with the flourishing development of cognition science, interdisciplinary research pays closer attention to mutual penetration instead of disintegration. This is a good opportunity of providing tools one another for language, mind and cognitive study. Making full use of modern technology, especially the development of neuroscience and artificial intelligence science closely related with these studies, further dissolve our great confusion of human mind universe.Chapter 6 reflects the achievements ancient Chinese and western philosophies have made on the study of other minds, and the major method paradigms. It first introduces the spontaneous exploration of other minds by ancient Chinese, followed by some modern western skepticism opinions on the issue of other minds and its criticism, and then it focuses on the method paradigms the modern western philosophy has used on the study of other minds. And there are various opinions on the method paradigms. Using the outcome the philosophy of mind has made on the study of physical and mental problems for reference, the dissertation has developed five method paradigms from the previous three method paradigms, namely analogy method, behaviorism method, phisicalism method, functionism method and simulation theory. And it will emphasize the discussion of the current most influential mind simulation theory which we think is currently one of the most persuasive paradigms. Finally we explore resorting to possible worlds to explicate the study of mind will produce on the world semantics, thinking that the world semantics has great advantage in dealing with the issue of mind. Although our exploration may be premature now, it has the value of further study.Chapter 7 is the conclusion and reflection. The content of this thesis is mainly summarized and the deficiency in current research and what can be further studied are introduced in this chapter. There remains a notable lack of anything resembling a definitive, uncontested view of the mind. Do not conclude from this that it would be a waste of time for you to delve into the philosophy of mind. On the contrary, we enjoy the advantage of hindsight.