The Direct Perception Approach To Other Minds:From The Perspective Of Phenomenology Of Body

As for the problem of other minds,theory theory and simulation theory stem from our capacity to estimate the mental states of other people,explain other people's behaviors in terms of their mental states and predict how they will behave in the future,which is a matter of executing higher order cognitive capacities.The direct perception approach to other minds,based on embodied simulation theory and interaction theory,is a new approach to the problem of other minds,believing that other minds can be accessed in a direct,non-inferential and perceptual way,emphasizing the foundational role that body plays.The rise of the direct perception approach to other minds has challenged the dominant position of the theory of mind,making it a theory that cannot be neglected in the study of other minds.However,due to its incompleteness,the current theory of direct perception approach to other minds is strongly hit back by the theory of mind.The dissertation aims to defend and improve the direct perception approach to other minds.From the perspective of phenomenology of body,integrating cognitive science and neuroscience,the dissertation expounds the direct perception approach to other minds in terms of the basis,theoretical connotation,development status,challenges and responses,identifying the problems to be solved and perfecting the direct perception approach to other minds with Merleau-Ponty's phenomenology of body.The point of the dissertation is that despite its deficiencies and challenges posed by the theory of mind,the direct perception approach to other minds is developing in depth and being perfected in the phenomenology of body,enabling it to get rid of the constraints of the theory of mind,deal with the challenges posed by the theory of mind and be used in the explanation of autism,human-robot interaction and interactive robot ethics.The research details are as follows:Firstly,the dissertation analyzed the foundation and development of direct perception approach to other minds.The joint influence of embodied mind,embodied cognition and the development of neuroscience contributes to the emergence of direct perception approach to other minds.Clarifying the theoretical premise,theoretical connotation,theoretical development and theoretical application of the embodied simulation theory and interaction theory,the dissertation points out that the two theories of direct perception approach to other minds have been developing rapidly with an expansion both in theoretical depth and in application.The embodied simulation theory,exploring the relationship between emotion,behavior,language and embodied simulation,is applied in pathology and literary creation.Interaction theory,attempting to combine extended cognition and dynamical systems theory to increase its theoretical explanatory power,is applied to linguistic and pathological studies.The direct perception approach to other minds,which has been widely recognized,is gradually transcending the theory of mind.Secondly,the dissertation expounded the challenges encountered by direct perception and figured out its countermeasures.The embodied simulation theory is questioned by interaction theory and theory of mind for the relationship with higher-order cognition,the fusion with phenomenology and the ascribed status of mirror neurons.Whereas,interaction theory is mainly questioned by theory of mind,specifically for the incomplete negation of theory of mind,the absence of sub-personal dimension,and the lack of explanatory power of narrative theory.To these challenges,both the embodied simulation theory and the interaction theory have responded,defending the position of direct perception approach to other minds.Embodied simulation theory deals with the challenges from interaction theory and theory of mind by introducing strong embodied cognition,integrating phenomenology and embedding interactions;interaction theory deals with the challenges from theory of mind by giving the representative interpretation of the mind,the enactive study of interaction,and the integration of personal perspectives.At the same time,the theory of mind challenges the direct perception again,which is manifested in two aspects:further pointing out the problem of direct perception approach to other minds and enhanceing the theoretical explanatory power to improve itself.Thirdly,the dissertation pointed out the problems faced by the direct perception approach to other minds and come up with coping methods.Facing the internal controversy of the direct perception of other minds and new challenges posed by the theory of mind,it is argued that the direct perception approach to other minds needs to be repaired on three levels:the experiential level,the perceptive level and the divergent level.On the empirical level,the syncretic sociability is added to shifting the empirical basis of direct perception to the primary experience.Compared with the reciprocal experience of embodied simulation theory and interaction theory,the experience of syncretic sociability is more basic,making it the starting point of the direct perception approach to other minds.The direct perception approach to other minds is characterized by a process of generation,synesthesia and experience sedimentation.Adding synaesthetic perception to direct perception approach on the perceptive level,it is emphasized that the direct and primordial contact of the living body with others is obtained through pre-reflective synesthesia.Synaesthetic perception ensures the direct perception approach to other minds mainly through three aspects:inter-body synaesthesia,intra-body synaesthesia and synaesthetic inhibition.On the divergent level,the dissertation uses pragmatic identity to explain the causes and dispelling process of other minds' divergence.The division of pragmatic identity leads to the fact that the direct perception approach to other minds,a biased grasp of other minds,causes the emergence of divergence.With the dynamic construction and shedding of pragmatic identity and the emergence of authentic pragmatic identity,the divergence of other minds will gradually diminish and disolve.Above all,the direct perception is an access to one face of other minds,with an omniscient access only as a prototype effect,necessitating syncretic sociability as the experiential grounding,synaesthetic perception as the perceptive mode.Finally,the dissertation demonstrated the application prospect of direct perception approach to other minds based on phenomenology of body.Apart from the explanations of broken mirror theory and interactive theory,the causes of autism,according to the direct perception approach to other minds,are the breaking of syncretic sociability,the enhancing of synaesthetic ability and the difficulty of identity dividing.The autistic children can't use a suitable way to perceive one face of other minds directly.A real human-robot interaction should be based on the integration of social perception experience,rather than a kind of calculation and reasoning ability.The key to solving the problem of interactive robot ethics lies in eliminating the effects of theory of mind,the co-existence of human and robots,the integration of human and robot in interaction and the ethical consistency between human and robot.These applications of direct perception approach to other minds based on phenomenology of body demonstrate the explanatory power of the repaired direct perception approach to other minds,with the expectation that more disciplines can attach the importance to the direct perception approach to other minds.