Transparency And Self Knowledge
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Transparency and Self-Knowledge
Author: Alex Byrne
language: en
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Release Date: 2018-04-19
Alex Byrne sets out and defends a theory of self-knowledge-knowledge of one's mental states. Inspired by Gareth Evans' discussion of self-knowledge in his The Varieties of Reference, the basic idea is that one comes to know that one is in a mental state M by an inference from a worldly or environmental premise to the conclusion that one is in M. (Typically the worldly premise will not be about anything mental.) The mind, on this account, is 'transparent': self-knowledge is achieved by an 'outward glance' at the corresponding tract of the world, not by an 'inward glance' at one's own mind. Belief is the clearest case, with the inference being from 'p' to 'I believe that p'. One serious problem with this idea is that the inference seems terrible, because 'p' is at best very weak evidence that one believes that p. Another is that the idea seems not to generalize. For example, what is the worldly premise corresponding to 'I intend to do this', or 'I feel a pain'? Byrne argues that both problems can be solved, and explains how the account covers perception, sensation, desire, intention, emotion, memory, imagination, and thought. The result is a unified theory of self-knowledge that explains the epistemic security of beliefs about one's mental states (privileged access), as well as the fact that one has a special first-person way of knowing about one's mental states (peculiar access).
The Opacity of Mind
Author: Peter Carruthers
language: en
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Release Date: 2013-08
Do we have introspective access to our own thoughts? Peter Carruthers challenges the consensus that we do: he argues that access to our own thoughts is always interpretive, grounded in perceptual awareness and sensory imagery. He proposes a bold new theory of self-knowledge, with radical implications for understanding of consciousness and agency.
New Perspectives on Transparency and Self-Knowledge
It is natural to think that self-knowledge is gained through introspection, whereby we somehow peer inward and detect our mental states. However, so-called transparency theories emphasize our capacity to peer outward at the world, hence beyond our minds, in the pursuit of self-knowledge. For all their popularity in recent decades, transparency theories have also met with myriad challenges. This volume presents new perspectives on transparency-theoretic approaches to self-knowledge. It addresses many under-explored dimensions of transparency theories and considers their wider implications for epistemology, philosophy of mind, and psychology. Some chapters in this volume aim to deepen our understanding of key themes at the heart of transparency theories, such as the ways in which transparent self-knowledge is properly "first-personal" or "non-alienated". Other chapters offer arguments for extending transparency accounts of self-knowledge to different kinds of mental states and phenomena, such as memory, actions, social groups, and credences. Finally, there are chapters in the volume which discuss interesting relationships between transparency theories, projection, second-order sincerity, and Moore’s Paradox. This book will appeal to scholars and advanced students working in epistemology, philosophy of mind, and psychology.