The Analogical Inference to Other Minds

Abstract

Two strands of objection to the argument by analogy for the existence of other minds can be distinguished: one that it involves some kind of radical conceptual confusion, the other that it is simply an inductively unsound argument. we consider a number of objections of the second kind. we divide them into those which emphasise the uncheckability of the conclusion and those which emphasise the narrowness of the inductive base, and we argue that they all fail to establish that the argument by analogy for other minds is unsound.