Mind Gauging: Introspection as a Public Epistemic Resource

Piccinini, Gualtiero (2001) Mind Gauging: Introspection as a Public Epistemic Resource.

Abstract

Introspection used to be excluded from science because it isn’t public--for any question about mental states, only the person whose states are in question can answer by introspecting. However, we often use introspective reports to gauge each other’s minds, and contemporary psychologists generate data from them. I argue that some uses of introspection are as public as any scientific method.