Are there other minds besides your own? The preceding question is one to which we may never arrive at a consensus. There have been constant debates about the existence of other minds. Ever since the work of the philosopher Descartes a few centuries ago, there have been a division as it relates to questions of the mind ever since. One can say that he has contributed a legacy that has led to a significant development of the discipline, as well as one can say that he has opened a Pandora’s box; the fact it that since the discursion on the mind by Descartes, the world of philosophy is not quite the same. Descartes postulates that a person’s own mind is primarily what they are and knows best, this does not account for the existence of other minds. However there is an underlying reality to which we all will ponder: can we really prove definitively that there are other minds other than our own? This essay will attempt to rationalize the existence of other minds by analyzing two philosophical views and approaches made by philosophers. The two views of which this paper is concerned are logical behavioralism or peripheralism and the argument from analogy. These two philosophical views will be analyzed in order to ratify whether or not the problems of other minds can really be resolved conclusively.
There are certain questions to which it seems there are no direct answers; one such question is the question of other minds. The philosopher Graham (1998) gives an account of his predecessor Descartes and how he formulated the theory of Cartesian dualism. Descartes postulates, according to Graham the mind and body are two separate entities, “Descartes believes that there is a realm of mind distinct and for him separable for that of the behaving body upon which the mind acts” (Graham, 1998, p. 45). He further posits that Cartesian dualism does not only divide the universe into the realms of physical and mental, but that he (Descartes) gives precedence to the mind. The...