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Friday, December 7, 2018

The Onion and Philosophy: The Problem of Other People's Minds

Jonathan Wagner
H0-3

In the Chapter "Fake News Story Not True" by Andrew Terjensen in The Onion and Philosophy, the Problem of Other People's Minds is evaluated. The chapter deals with The Onion's satirical stories being perceived as real. For example, the headline "Child Bankrupts Make a Wish Foundation With Wish For Unlimited Wishes" (1/16/08) was misreported as fact. Jumping off of instances like these, the book extrapolates these misunderstandings to all human interaction.

Rene Descartes originated the Problem of Other People's Minds, saying "But I judge that there are human beings from these appearances". He believes people to be similar to him without any proof, and because we are limited by our perspective we can't even be sure of other people's existence.

The Problem of Other People's Minds can make communication difficult. We are trapped in our experience, and can't see anyone's thoughts. Therefore, we can't know how we are being perceived or if we are perceiving them correctly. We use context clues and our similar experience to help effectively communicate. Bertrand Russel said, we "rely upon similarities between ourselves and other people” to know their thoughts.

Personal bias exacerbates the Problem of Other People's Minds. People believe what they want to be true. They can bypass context clues or misinterpret statements to fit their worldview. For example, anti-gay activist Fred Phelps used the Onion article "'98 Homosexual Recruitment Drive Nearing Goal" (7/29/98) as proof of his opinion. The articles ridiculous claims about the groups proud "message of sexual promiscuity and deviance" weren't questioned by someone who is so homophobic.

The Beijing Evening News misunderstood Onion article "Congress Threatens to Leave D.C. Unless New Capitol Is Built" (5/29/02) as fact. They reported it as international news and only retracted the story after demanding proof it was false. The story was filled with details that would be dead giveaways for American audiences, but didn't necessarily translate to foreigners. The Capitol in question had "bad sight lines", "not enough concession stands" and "miserable parking". Because of our common understanding that the legislative branch is unlikely to move, we can see the satire.
Quiz:

  1. Who originated the Problem of Other People’s Minds?
  2. What is the Problem of Other People’s Minds?
  3. Who misreported that the US congress was considering relocating?
  4. Who said we “rely on similarities between ourselves and other people” to communicate
DQ:

  1. How do you know that anyone else is real without knowing their thoughts?
  2. Is the Onion hurting the public by not posting a disclaimer that they aren’t legitimate news?

Midterm Report:
https://cophilosophy.blogspot.com/2018/10/the-onion-and-philosophy-god-vs-onion.html
Comments:




  • https://cophilosophy.blogspot.com/2018/12/the-truman-show-is-real-better.html?showComment=1544231625648#c64447781905055425
  • https://cophilosophy.blogspot.com/2018/12/voltaire.html?showComment=1544231865429#c1184008547807430866

2 comments:

  1. I don't feel like The Onion is hurting people by not clearly stating that they are fake news. I think those articles should inspire people to do their research and learn the true story or facts.

    ReplyDelete
  2. The Onion is the perfect platform for worrying about other minds, not to mention our own! People who really question the reality of other persons are scary and often dangerous, they deserve all the parody they can get.

    ReplyDelete

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