Kagaku tetsugaku
Online ISSN : 1883-6461
Print ISSN : 0289-3428
ISSN-L : 0289-3428
Logic and Probabilly
Why Should We Know Our Own Minds?
Avowal, Rational Agency, and the First-Person Privilege
Shuhei Shimamura
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JOURNAL FREE ACCESS

2012 Volume 45 Issue 2 Pages 29-46

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Abstract

It is commonly assumed that a personʼs avowal of her own mind is privileged. But quite a few researchers doubt this first-person privilege, finding it difficult to give it a secure place within their theories of the mind. This paper aims to show that a psychological subject must have first-person privilege. Some philosophers claim that psychological subjects must be rational agents, and a special subclass of them (like us) must have first-person privilege. Accepting this basic idea, I attempt to give substance to it by offering an indisputable interpretation of rational agency and a non-trivial argument to derive first-person privilege from it.

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© 2012 The Philosophy of Science Society, Japan
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