Wittgenstein and Other Minds

Abstract

A basic assumption of traditional philosophy of mind, which Wittgenstein attacks, is
that we extrapolate the meaning of third-person ascriptions of mental-states from the
meaning of first-person ascriptions (hereafter, the Extrapolation Thesis). In this
paper I examine two fundamental strands in Wittgenstein's attack. My main conclusion
is that none of them succeeds. But, as I indicate at the end, this may not be a
reason for traditionalists to rejoice.