Research Group
in Analytic Philosophy

Abstract

People often directly tell us about their thoughts, feelings, and desires.  This common practice has led some philosophers to claim that testimony can be a fundamental way of knowing about others’ minds. I shall argue that this claim is plausible only if we assume a certain conception of testimony, one which aligns it very closely with perception.  By contrast, if we were to adopt a different conception of testimony, such as Richard Moran’s ‘assurance view’, then our acquiring testimonial knowledge of someone else’s mind would epistemically depend upon our having non-testimonial knowledge of their mental states. More specifically, I shall suggest that this latter knowledge is based on a person’s expressive behaviours. Finally, I shall develop a framework for explaining how expressive behaviours ground our ordinary knowledge of others’ minds.