http://psychologybasics.blogspot.co.uk/ Beetle in the box "The Beetle in a Box is a famous thought experiment that Wittgenstein introduces in the context of his investigation of pains. Pains occupy a distinct and vital place in the philosophy of mind for several reasons. One is that pains seem to collapse the appearance/reality distinction.If an object appears to you to be red it might not be so in reality, but if you seem to yourself to be in pain you must be so: there can be no case here of seeming at all. At the same time, one cannot feel another person’s pain, but only infer it from their behavior and their reports of it. If we accept pains as special qualia known absolutely but exclusively by the solitary minds that perceive them, this may be taken to ground a Cartesian view of the self and consciousness. Our consciousness, of pains anyway, would seem unassailable. Against this, one might acknowledge the absolute fact of one's own pain, but claim skepticism about the existence of anyone else's pains. Alternatively, one might take a behaviorist line and claim that our pains are merely neurological stimulations accompanied by a disposition to behave. Wittgenstein invites us to imagine a community in which the individuals each have a box containing a "beetle". "No one can look into anyone else's box, and everyone says he knows what a beetle is only by looking at his beetle." If the "beetle" had a use in the language of these people, it could not be as the name of something - because it is entirely possible that each person had something completely different in their box, or even that the thing in the box constantly changed, or that each box was in fact empty. The content of the box is irrelevant to whatever language game it is used in.By analogy, it does not matter that one cannot experience another's subjective sensations. Unless talk of such subjective experience is learned through public experience the actual content is irrelevant; all we can discuss is what is available in our public language. By offering the “beetle” as an analogy to pains, Wittgenstein suggests that the case of pains is not really amenable to the uses philosophers would make of it. “That is to say: if we construe the grammar of the expression of sensation on the model of ‘object and designation,’ the object drops out of consideration as irrelevant.”.....WIKI If we do in fact have a beetle in the box-the mind and seat of the self then how could we tell?How could it be discovered? We cannot look inside the box.All we have to go on is the occasional tapping (language) as it hits the sides! What we have is an analogy to how the brain is examined in order that the mind be exposed and that we are unable to open this box has resulted in now what is known as the internalist-externalist debate. "Internalism and externalism are two opposing ways of explaining various subjects in several areas of philosophy. These include human motivation, knowledge, justification, meaning, and truth. The distinction arises in many areas of debate with similar but distinct meanings. Usually 'internalism' refers to the belief that an explanation can be given of the given subject by pointing to things which are internal to the person or their mind who is considering them. Conversely, externalism holds that it is things about the world which motivate us, justify our beliefs, determine meaning, etc."-WIKI
Basically internalists posit 'innate ideas' an idea which is what evolutionary psychology is predicated on.Where the confusion lies is that in trying to get at the beetle the methodology employed and subsequent results is taken as proof that externalist is true. Though the methodology is employed in the first place exactly due to our being unable to get a glimpse in the box in the first place.All there is are the outward signs of life.I can never fully explicate the sensations of my pain but believe me that I do in fact have that sensation.And what if I were able to give external sign of my internal mind?A paradox in that it would simply be taken as further evidence that externalism is true! Perhaps we will never be able to get at the beetle but that there may be one there should always be kept in mind.I am about to begin reading a book which argues for internalism this week and will post a review in the following week...A Subjects Point of View by Farkas,it has got good reviews and can be found online.
