How do we know, inductively or deductively, that other minds exist?

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How do we know that other minds exist and that the people that we interact with have minds??

I mean couldn’t it be possible in theory that all the people that you interact with are just robots that are very good at displaying human characteristics but are really just robots without any minds?

And also, doesn’t occam’s razor prove that other minds don’t exist (since in theory positing the existence of robots is less complex than positing the existence of a mind)?

Thanks in advanced.
 
TheDefaultMan said:
And also, doesn’t occam’s razor prove that other minds don’t exist (since in theory positing the existence of robots is less complex than positing the existence of a mind)?
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How do you figure that? Robots, being machines, are capable only of what they have been programmed to be capable of. They are entirely predictable.

If robots are predictable, how do you account for human fallibility? How do you account for the random, incoherent misunderstandings, miscommunications, and just plain stupidity? How do you account for someone randomly forgetting why they came into a room? And what would be the purpose, or what Cain would there be, of creating a world of robots with one mind among them, which mind will likely not come into contact with more than a few hundred thousand robots in the course of it’s life? What’s the point of such a deception?

No, Occam’s Razor demands the simplest explanation. It is far simpler to conclude that everyone around you also has a mind than it is to conclude they are robots.
 
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What would be the purpose of creating mindless robots that fight with each other?

What advantage?
 
It is obvious from the people I know in church and elsewhere that some people love God.
That makes it quite obvious that they are people, if i somehow doubted it.
 
TheDefaultMan said:
How do we know that other minds exist
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Here’s another one I’ve pondered quite a bit. How do I know other people actually exist and aren’t just a creation of my own mind? When I die will the world I know cease to exist? I enjoy thinking on this stuff, especially after a few beers on a Friday night. 🙂
 
TheDefaultMan said:
occam’s razor… (since in theory positing the existence of robots is less complex than positing the existence of a mind)
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Think again. Which is simpler, beings like yourself, or another class of being that is capable of making such robots?
 
How do you know you’re not one of these robots yourself but have been programmed to think you’re a human?
 
TheDefaultMan said:
How do we know that other minds exist
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We don’t have certain knowledge that other particular minds exist. But we know for certain that we are receiving intelligently ordered information (my post here is evidence of that). But where that information is coming from can be questioned.
TheDefaultMan said:
I mean couldn’t it be possible in theory that all the people that you interact with are just robots that are very good at displaying human characteristics but are really just robots without any minds?
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If they are robots i can only assume that a mind has created them, since there is intelligently ordered information in them.
TheDefaultMan said:
And also, doesn’t occam’s razor prove that other minds don’t exist
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Well no actually. The simplest explanation for receiving intelligently ordered information is that you are receiving it from another mind, and that how things appear is exactly what they are; other minds.
 
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Read a book that you didn’t author and you will learn of another’s mind.
 
TheDefaultMan said:
And also, doesn’t occam’s razor prove that other minds don’t exist (since in theory positing the existence of robots is less complex than positing the existence of a mind)?
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Ahhh . . . who built those remarkably life-like robots? THAT person surely had a mind!
 
Thrstypirate said:
How do you know you’re not one of these robots yourself but have been programmed to think you’re a human?
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I don’t think it makes sense to think of a mind’s nature as being nothing more than moving parts. We can certainly be fooled. But it cannot follow from this fact that we don’t have minds for the simple fact that we have a direct self-evident sense and knowledge of having one. If we didn’t have a mind we would have no knowledge or comprehension of it.
 
0Scarlett_nidiyilii said:
What would be the purpose of creating mindless robots that fight with each other?

What advantage?
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Entertainment. Or, if they really were robots, perhaps conflict would give the impression that they have a mind to disagree with each-other, if the purpose is to create an illusion of other minds.
 
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TheDefaultMan said:
How do we know that other minds exist and that the people that we interact with have minds??

I mean couldn’t it be possible in theory that all the people that you interact with are just robots that are very good at displaying human characteristics but are really just robots without any minds?

And also, doesn’t occam’s razor prove that other minds don’t exist (since in theory positing the existence of robots is less complex than positing the existence of a mind)?

Thanks in advanced.
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We cannot prove it. All intellectual (name removed by moderator)ut that we perceive from others could be the result of activity of an omniscient computer. There is however something there, minimally the computer, since you cannot consistently perceive intelligent (name removed by moderator)ut from nothingness.
 
Beryllos said:
Indeed, how do you know that you have a mind?
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Because you have self-evident knowledge of it. There has to be that which is having knowledge, otherwise you would not know.
 
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STT said:
By proof I mean to discard all possible imaginable scenarios but one. I already gave a scenario. Can you discard it?
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The problem with your computer scenario is that a computer only produces intelligently ordered information by analogy. Without a real mind to interpret it, the information it produces is meaningless and not intelligent at all…
 
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