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    The Cartesian assumption that one can be a lone thinker i... — Carmelics
    Home/Skepticism
    HistoryEditSee Inverse

    The Cartesian assumption that one can be a lone thinker is mistaken

    Consciousness & MindSkepticism
    ?Rate how convincing each reason is below to see the overall strength.
    2 reasons for
    1 reason against

    Reasons For

    2 perspectives
    Reason for 1 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Wittgenstein's private language argument shows that meaning requires public criteria of correctness that no solitary mind can self-supply.
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    • 2.Without external standards to distinguish 'following a rule' from 'seeming to follow a rule', no genuine intentional content can be fixed.
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    • 3.Therefore the very intelligibility of Cartesian first-person certainty presupposes the intersubjective framework it claims to precede.
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    Reason for 2 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Davidson's anomalous monism entails that propositional attitudes are individuated only through interpretive triangulation with world and other speakers.
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    • 2.A lone thinker has no third-corner triangulation point, so no determinate fact fixes whether its states are beliefs about fire or about warmth.
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    Reasons Against

    1 perspective
    Reason against
    ?
    • 1.Having thoughts with content requires triangulation with other thinking creatures
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    • 2.A lone thinker by definition lacks other thinking creatures to triangulate with
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    • 3.Therefore a lone thinker cannot have thoughts with content, and thus cannot be a thinker at all
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    Topics

    SkepticismConsciousness & Mind

    Related

    A lone thinker by definition lacks other thinking creatures to triangulate withA lone thinker has no third-corner triangulation point, so no determinate fact f...Davidson's anomalous monism entails that propositional attitudes are individuate...Having thoughts with content requires triangulation with other thinking creature...
    +4 moreShow less
    Therefore a lone thinker cannot have thoughts with content, and thus cannot be a...Therefore the very intelligibility of Cartesian first-person certainty presuppos...Without external standards to distinguish 'following a rule' from 'seeming to fo...Wittgenstein's private language argument shows that meaning requires public crit...

    Similar

    Therefore a lone thinker cannot have thoughts with content, and thus c...87%A lone thinker by definition lacks other thinking creatures to triangu...85%A lone thinker cannot have thoughts with determinate content80%The existence of a single thinking subject entails the existence of ot...76%

    Source

    AI-extracted1/3 agreementValid
    SEP: transcendental-arguments
    View source passageHide passage
    Finally, we may turn to the work of Donald Davidson, who like Putnam bases his transcendental claim on a form of externalism, which links the content of our mental states to how we relate to our environment; but in his case, this idea is directed against skepticism concerning other minds. Thus, while the skeptic holds that the existence of such minds is doubtful, Davidson argues that it would not be possible for a creature like me to have thoughts unless I lived in a world with other creatures w
    Extraction notes

    Validity: Extracted via Max plan + API grounding/validity checks

    Details

    Type
    claim
    Perspectives
    3 (2 for, 1 against)
    Edits
    1 edit