Knowing Our Own Minds

by Wright, Crispin; Smith, Barry C.; Macdonald, Cynthia

• ISBN13: 9780199241408
• ISBN10: 0199241406
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-12-28
• Publisher: Clarendon Press

Summary

Self-knowledge is the focus of considerable attention from philosophers: Knowing Our Own Minds gives a much-needed overview of current work on the subject, bringing together new essays by leading figures. Knowledge of one's own sensations, desires, intentions, thoughts, beliefs, and otherattitudes is characteristically different from other kinds of knowledge, such as knowledge of other people's mental attributes: it has greater immediacy, authority, and salience. The first six chapters examine philosophical questions raised by these features of self-knowledge. The next two look atthe role of our knowledge of our own psychological states in our functioning as rational agents. The third group of essays examine the tension between the distinctive characteristics of self-knowledge and arguments that psychological content is externally -- socially and environmentally --determined. The final pair of chapters extend the discussion to knowledge of one's own language. Together these original, stimulating, and closely interlinked essays demonstrate the special relevance of self-knowledge to a broad range of issues in epistemology, philosophy of mind, and philosophy oflanguage.

Table of Contents

List of Contributors	ix
Introduction	1	(12)
Self-Knowledge: The Wittgensteinian Legacy	13	(34)
Crispin Wright
Response to Crispin Wright	47	(16)
John McDowell
Conscious Attitudes, Attention, and Self-Knowledge	63	(36)
Christopher Peacocke
An Eye Directed Outward	99	(24)
M. G. F. Martin
Externalism and Authoritative Self-Knowledge	123	(32)
Cynthia MacDonald
Self-Knowledge: Special Access versus Artefact of Grammar---A Dichotomy Rejected	155	(52)
Elizabeth Fricker
Self-Knowledge and Resentment	207	(36)
Akeel Bilgrami
Reason and the First Person	243	(28)
Tyler Burge
What the Externalist Can Know A Priori	271	(14)
Paul A. Boghossian
Externalism, Twin Earth, and Self-Knowledge	285	(36)
Brian P. Mclaughlin
Michael Tye
Externalism, Architecturalism, and Epistemic Warrant	321	(42)
Martin Davies
First-Person Authority and the Internal Reality of Beliefs	363	(8)
Diana Raffman
The Simple Theory of Colour and the Transparency of Sense Experience	371	(20)
Jim Edwards
On Knowing One's Own Language	391	(38)
Barry C. Smith
On Knowing One's Own Language	429	(14)
James Higginbotham
Index	443