The other-minds problem dissolves because Dasein is always already with others

Evidence

The old philosophical problem of how we prove the existence of other minds has now vanished. Dasein swims in the with-world long before it wonders about other minds. Others are those ‘from whom, for the most part, one does not distinguish oneself — those among whom one is too’. Mitsein remains characteristic even of a Dasein that is shipwrecked on a desert island or trying to get away from everyone by living on the top of a pillar, since those situations are defined mainly by reference to the missing fellow Daseins. The Dasein of a stylite is still a Being-with, but it is (Heidegger loves this word) a ‘deficient’ mode of Being-with. — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 217

Categorization

• DEFINE: Explains how Being-with dissolves the classical other-solipsism problem, including the surprising case of the stylite.
• CANDY: The image of a hermit on a pillar still being a ‘deficient’ Being-with is a witty, tweetable encapsulation of Heidegger’s social ontology.
• XREF: connects to: Interpreting others presupposes shared rationality and a common world. — Alex Callinicos, Against Postmodernism: A Marxist…, 420; Heidegger’s positive descriptions of Dasein mask hidden negations — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 216; Heidegger coined Dasein to avoid the assumptions carried by words like mind and consciousness. — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 201

Broader Connections

• Interpreting others presupposes shared rationality and a common world. #corroborates (0.82) — Alex Callinicos, Against Postmodernism, 420
• Heidegger coined Dasein to avoid the assumptions carried by words like mind and consciousness. #expands (0.78) — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 201
• Heidegger’s positive descriptions of Dasein mask hidden negations #complicates (0.75) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 216