Transparent Minds: A Study of Self-Knowledge

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 Fernandez 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, and argues that this view explains our privileged access to those propositional attitudes. The picture of self-knowledge that Fernandez proposes challenges the traditional notion that it is a matter of introspection. 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.