A Research On The New Development Of Other Minds Problem Under The Vision Of Mirror Neurons

Other minds problem originated from Descartes’ dualism.This problem includes the following three sub-questions:(1)Does other minds exist?(2)How is it possible to know other minds.It means to study the conditions and methods of understanding other minds.(3)The degree of awareness of other minds.As an important research field in philosophy of mind,many analytical philosophers such as Rusell,Wittgenstein,Ryle,Price,Putnam,Davidson and Dennett have given their own unique opinions on the problem of other minds,and philosophers in this field of phenomenology have also paid attention to the problem of whether other minds is knowable,such as Heidegger’s existential answer to other minds,and Merleau-Ponty’s argument that other minds are physical.As the discovery of mirror neurons in humans’ brain at the end of the last century,many philosophers started to pay attention to other minds problem.Philosophers try to explore new ways to solve this problems,which are supported by the research results of brain neuroscience,cognitive science and so on.The reason is that mirror neurons are considered to be the neural basis of human imitation and empathy.Imitation and empathy are the necessary cognitive abilities to understand other minds.Under this background,the new theories based on cognitive neuroscience,such as "Embodied-Simulation theory" and "Dual-processing theory of mind reading" are produced.The"Embodied-Simulation theory" holds that the unique function of human’s own perception system,especially mirror neuron,can make people know other minds directly without repeating the psychological activities of other people according to his own experience.The "Dual-processing theory of mind reading" holds that human brain has two different processes to process the information obtained.One is to rely on unconscious processing,the other is to rely on logical thinking and reasoning ability of more complex processing process.Mirror neurons play an important role in the unconscious processing of information.The study of other minds is of great importance both in theory and in practice.The thesis focuses on the new development of Other minds theory under the vision of mirror neurons.Firstly,it combs the Other minds theory before mirror neurons were discovered,then traces the discovery process of mirror neurons,and analyzes the relationship between mirror neurons and "imitation" and "empathy" as the basis of cognition.In the final part,it introduces "Embodied-Simulation theory" and"Dual-processing theory of mind reading" in detail.The paper is divided into four parts:The first part introduces the emergence and the development of Other minds theory,which analyzes the philosophical way before the birth of Mirror neuron theory,and focuses on the interpretation of Other minds problem by Russell’s analogy argument,Wittgenstein’s and Ryle’s behaviorism,Price’s and Smart’ identical theory,Putnam’s functionalism,King’ holistic theory of attachment to power,Davidson’s and Dennett’s interpretivism.In the second part,the discovery of mirror neurons and the development of mirror neuron theory are combined,and whether mirror neurons can be used as the neural mechanism of imitation and empathy ability to provide support for mind reading process is analyzed and discussed.The third part introduces Heidegger and Merleau-Ponty’s "Embodied-mind theory"is introduced and it can be regarded as the theoretical forerunner of "Body-simulation theory".Then the "Embodied-Simulation theory" that developed from the research results of mirror neurons is discussed in detail.In the final part,after introducing the dispute between "Theory theory" and"Simulation theory",this thesis analyzes the defects of the traditional "Simulation theory".Then it explains the viewpoint of the new "Dual-processing theory of mind reading" and its contribution on the improvement of the traditional "Simulation theory".The main research object of this thesis is the new form of Other mind theory under the vision of mirror neurons.The purpose of this thesis is to clarify the innovation,academic and practical value of the research on Other mind problem,then make more scholars to focus on this research field.