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How do ordinary people and scientists maintain their belief that other people also have minds?

Which do ordinary people and scientists use arguments for their belief that other people also have minds?

It says here that they take it for granted.

What does it mean?

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  • It means that they are not concerned about this issue. Have you ever heard of a "Tar Baby"?
    – Scott Rowe
    Commented Dec 8, 2022 at 17:53
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    Ordinary people think about things like dinner and their bank balance and what's on TV. Scientists think about their work, then the same stuff as ordinary people. Unless a scientist's work involves the mind in some way they are unlikely to think about such issues, at least outside of their college philosophy course.
    – Boba Fit
    Commented Dec 8, 2022 at 17:59
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    @RobertAntoni I don't think asking the same question with slight variations in wording is a helpful use of this site, at least not without a more substantial lapse in time between them, and sufficiently distinct content to warrant the new version of the inquiry. Why not start improving your contributions by accepting answers to your other, similar questions, and providing answers of your own to other people's questions? But so for example, this version of this question is arguably a matter of empirical psychology.and a better fit, then, on the PsychologySE.
    – Kristian Berry
    Commented Dec 8, 2022 at 20:15
  • Yes, that's about right. It's a functional solution and has worked for millenia.
    – Marxos
    Commented Dec 8, 2022 at 20:46

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Here is how I do it.

My subjective and objective life experience has furnished me with a constant stream of evidence which suggests so strongly to me that other people have minds that I do not question it. At the same time it has furnished me with absolutely no evidence that they do not have minds.

If you want to get technical about it, consider the evidence for the existence of "mirror neurons" in the brain, which have been shown to allow someone (with a brain) to indirectly (nonverbally) experience what someone else (with a brain) is experiencing at that moment.

If there is only one mind in the universe (yours) then it seems that the only purpose in having mirror neurons in your brain is to trick your brain into believing in the existence of other minds.

What would be the point of that?

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