We all seem to be capable of telling
what our current states of mind are. At any given moment, we know, for
example, what we believe, and what we want. But how do we know that? In
Transparent Minds, Jordi Fernández explains our knowledge of our own
propositional attitudes. Drawing on the so-called 'transparency' of
belief, he proposes that we attribute beliefs and desires to ourselves
based on our grounds for those beliefs and desires. The book argues that
this view explains our privileged access to those propositional
attitudes. Three applications are drawn from the model of self-knowledge
that emerges: a solution to Moore's paradox, an account of the
thought-insertion delusion, and an explanation of self-deception. The
puzzles raised by all three phenomena can be resolved, Fernández argues,
if we construe them as failures of self-knowledge. The resulting
picture of self-knowledge challenges the traditional notion that it is a
matter of introspection. For the main tenet of Transparent Minds is
that we come to know what we believe and desire by 'looking outward,'
and attending to the states of affairs which those beliefs and desires
are about.
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