User:Adorno rocks/Problem of other minds

The problem of other minds refers to the philosophical debate concerning whether we can know if other people have minds or are simply automata. The question has also been stated as being concerned with our mental states and how we can relate them to those of other people (or to our language). The issue has been at the forefront of philosophy of mind ever since Descartes' discussion of it in the first of his Meditations on first philosophy, and was extremely important in the development of philosophy during the twentieth century. Many arguments have been formulated both for and against the thesis that others must have minds, but the issue is not considered resolved. One extreme position in the debate is solipsism, which is the view that one is the only existent mind. Recently, the issue has received attention outside philosophy, most notably from psychological fields.