Seeing Souls

Wittgenstein and Cavell and the Problem of Other Minds

Abstract

The so-called “Part I” of Philosophical Investigations contains many claims concerning the grammar of psychological predicates, and particularly about the conditions for ascribing them to others. The following are some of the most well-known (and also most representative) among such claims: (i) “only of a living human being and what resembles (behaves like) a living human being can one say: it has sensations; it sees; is blind; hears; is deaf; is conscious or unconscious”; (ii) “An ‘inner process’ stands in need of outward criteria.” The content of these and other kindred remarks has led a great number of readers to ascribe some kind of “externalistic” account to the author of the Investigations.