Problem of other minds

Can you truly know if others think as you do?

Imagine you're at a coffee shop, and you notice someone tapping their foot quickly. You see the action but can't hear the tapping. You wonder if they're just moving their foot or if there's something else going on in their mind.

The idea is that you can only see someone's physical actions, not their thoughts. You can't directly know if they're thinking or feeling something else just because you can't hear them tap their foot.

Example

You see the foot tapping but can't know if they're thinking about something else, like a song in their head.

Remember this

The 'problem of other minds' is the challenge of knowing if others have thoughts and feelings just by observing their actions.

Text adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

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