Mind Meaning and Rationality group seminar

4th February 2015, 2 pm
Dr Anita Avramides (St Hilda’s College, Oxford)
‘Other Minds: Understanding the Perceptual Model’

Abstract

In this talk I want to consider the perceptual model in connection with our knowledge of another mind. This is a model that has been proposed and championed by Fred Dretske, Quassim Cassam, and others. What I want to do in this talk is the following:  Firstly, I want to consider whether the perceptual model that Dretske proposes works in the same way for seeing that, for example, the cup is chipped and seeing that Otto is angry. I want to suggest that there is an important different between these two cases that must not be forgotten. Indeed, I shall suggest that, if we do overlook this difference, we are in danger of losing an important difference between the way we understand objects in the world and the way we understand other persons. Finally, I shall suggest that, in the light of this important difference, it may be less misleading to refer to our model for our knowledge of others along the lines of an understanding model as opposed to a perceptual model, and I explain what constitutes the difference here.