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    Carmelics

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    LoyalLoyalJusticeJustice
    Made withinDC&Austin
    Statements
    321,452
    Perspectives
    108,905
    Topics
    42
    Home/Original/inverse
    See Original
    Inverse View

    It is not the case that The analogical argument for other minds is significantly weaker when applied to members of another species than when applied to other humans.

    ?Set your confidence on the premises below to see your aggregate.

    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
    ?
    • 1.The traditional argument from analogy for other minds relies on observed similarities between oneself and other humans.
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    • 2.The traditional argument from analogy is already weak when applied to other humans.
      ?

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    • 3.When the analogy is extended from humans to members of another species, the degree of similarity is reduced.
      ?

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    Reasons Against

    2 perspectives
    Reason against 1 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Wittgenstein's criterion for mental state attribution requires behavioral and physiological similarity to ground our language games about pain and sensation.
      ?

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    • 2.Humans share with other humans a common form of life (Lebensform), including facial expressions, vocalizations, and social responses, that grounds reliable mental attribution.
      ?

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    • 3.Members of other species occupy a radically different form of life, so our mental-state concepts may not transfer without systematic distortion, weakening analogical inference.
      ?

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    Reason against 2 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Thomas Nagel's 'What Is It Like to Be a Bat?' establishes that phenomenal consciousness in distant species may be so alien that human introspection provides no reliable analogical bridge.
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    • 2.The analogical argument's epistemic force is proportional to the structural overlap between the reference case (oneself) and the target case, as Davidson's principle of interpretive charity presupposes shared propositional attitudes.
      ?

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    • 3.Neuroanatomical and evolutionary divergence between humans and phylogenetically distant species reduces the structural overlap precisely where it matters most for introspective projection.
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