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  • It's common knowledge that everyone has a mind and consciousness, right? Is it, however,

  • reasonable to believe this "common sense"? Let's find out, with people also ask.

  • Hi, I am Shao Chieh Lo, welcome to what people also ask, where I search for something seemingly

  • obvious and share with you some of its PAA, aka People Also Ask, which is a feature telling

  • you what other people are searching on Google that relates to your query. Today's keyword

  • is the problem of other minds and solipsism, we'll discuss what it is, and who proposed it and

  • is there any argument against it. So let's start with our first PAA: What is the problem

  • of other minds in philosophy? Google's auto-generated answer is linked to an entry titledProblem

  • of other mindspublished on Encyclopaedia Britannica, which is s a general knowledge

  • English-language encyclopedia. According to this entry, the problem of other minds is

  • the problem of justifying the commonsense assumption that others besides oneself have

  • minds and are capable of thinking or feeling similarly to oneself. You might thinkWhy

  • do I need to justify my belief that other people have consciousness and mind? Isn't

  • it just like.... obvious? “ I won't be so sure, when you think about it clearly, all you can

  • observe are actually just other people's “behavior”, you are actually not able

  • to observe other people's subjective experiences which we call consciousness or mind. Since

  • you cannot observe it, how do you know it exists? So here's our next PAA: What are

  • some solutions for problems of other minds? Ok, so this PAA is actually one of Google's

  • bloopers because Google's auto-generated question was actuallyWho created the problem

  • of other minds?” while Google's auto-extracted answer was aboutwho proposed a solution

  • for The problem of Other Minds”. Let me remind you Google's PAA is auto-generated

  • so sometimes this happens. Anyway, this articleTHE PROBLEM OF OTHER MINDSis published

  • by Philosophy Talk, which is a website affiliated with the same-named talk radio program. The

  • program deals both with fundamental problems of philosophy and with the works of famous

  • philosophers, especially the ones that related to our day-to-day lives. One solution

  • to The Problem of Other Minds was proposed by John Stuart Mill, a 19th-century empiricist,

  • argues that because one's body and outward behavior are observably similar to others'

  • bodies and behavior, one is justified by analogy in believing that others have feelings similar

  • to one's own. So it's likeYou are a human like me, you behave similarly to me,

  • and you speak in a similar manner to me. I have a mind; isn't it reasonable to assume

  • you do as well?” But here's the problem, this conclusion is actually based on a very

  • small sample, only 1, aka you. Luckily, there is another solution calledInference

  • to the Best Explanation”. According to Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Inference to the

  • best explanation is the procedure of choosing the hypothesis or theory that best explains

  • the available data. The factors that make one explanation better than another may include

  • depth, comprehensiveness, simplicity, and unifying power. Apply to The Problem of Other

  • Minds, we can rationalize it this way: I understand that my own mind explains a lot of my behavior,

  • that it is influenced by the outside world, and that the way it causes me to behave is

  • responsive to the information it picks up about the world. So it is almost certain that

  • everyone else works in a similar manner. So what if this still cannot convince you?

  • Then you might be a solipsist! Let's talk about our next PAA: What does solipsism mean

  • in philosophy? Because Google takes the answer to this query from a dictionary site called

  • Merriam-Webster, which is currently owned by Encyclopaedia Britannica, the answer is

  • short and simple: solipsism is a theory holding that the self can know nothing but its own

  • existence and that the self is the only existent thing. Obviously, many people do

  • not want this idea to be proven correct, because it's kind of a scary theory, and by a lot

  • of people I mean just you, if this theory is true. So: What is the argument against

  • solipsism? Google's auto-generated answer is linked to an article titledIs there

  • any philosophical rebuttal to solipsism - the theory that the self is all that you

  • can know to exist? Or are you all just figments of my imaginationpublished by The Guardian.

  • This article included various arguments against solipsism; it's a long and interesting piece,

  • so I won't be able to go over every point; I highly recommend reading it yourself. But,

  • for the time being, I can share one of these arguments mentioned in this article with you:

  • The concept ofselfonly exist ifothersexists. If a completely solipsistic being

  • existed, it would never be able to consider the concept of solipsism. In order to do that,

  • it would have had to become aware of itself and develop an identity including an 'I' concept.

  • To do that, it would have needed to 'exit' its own 'being' and consider itself from another's

  • point of view. But, there are no others or other points of view in solipsism. It follows

  • that a truly soliptic being has no self because it has noother-selvesto define itself.

  • I am kind of convinced, but it can probably refute solipsism but still won't solve the

  • problem of other minds since other people might exist, just do not have minds.

  • Today we, or maybe just myself, learned what is the Problem of Other Minds, what is solipsism,

  • as well as their corresponding solutions. If you made it to the end of the video, chances

  • are that you enjoy learning what people also ask on Google. But let's face it, reading

  • PAA yourself will be a pain. So here's the deal, I will do the reading for you and upload

  • a video compiling some fun PAAs once a week, all you have to do is to hit the subscribe

  • button and the bell icon so you won't miss any PAA report that I compile. So just do

  • it right now. Bye!

It's common knowledge that everyone has a mind and consciousness, right? Is it, however,

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