Self-Knowledge and Theories of Mind

lecture 9

Self-Knowledge

The awareness of one's own mental states and processes.

Infallibility

The principle that individuals cannot be mistaken about their own mental states.

Privileged Access

The idea that individuals have special access to their own mental states that others do not.

False Consciousness

A state in which an individual may misinterpret their own emotions or beliefs.

Emotional Misidentification

The phenomenon of mistakenly identifying the emotions related to different experiences.

Freud’s Theory of the Unconscious

The concept that many mental states are hidden from conscious awareness.

Inner Sense Model

David Armstrong's theory that we are aware of our own mental states through introspection.

Introspection

The process of examining one's own thoughts and feelings.

Infinite Regress

A logical problem where an argument needs endless justification, as with multiple layers of second-order experiences.

Verificationism

The philosophical view that a statement is meaningful only if it can be empirically verified.

Behaviourism

The theory that mental states are not private experiences but are exhibited through observable behaviors.

Patterns of Behavior

The actions or conduct that indicate mental states, according to behaviorist views.

Super-Spartan Example

A situation illustrating that a person may internally experience pain without showing any external behavioral indications.

Compromise in Self-Knowledge Theory

The suggestion that a combination of mental states and behaviors may be necessary for a complete theory of self-knowledge.