When Minds Converse

When Minds Converse makes the case that humans do not speak because our minds are special. Rather, our minds are special because we can speak. Philip Pettit argues that six capacities typical of our species begin as social skills used in conversation, and that we then internalize them when we commune with ourselves in thought. This is a society-first view of the human mind and, more broadly, of the human soul. Pettit also suggests how this philosophical anthropology could support universal ideals of equality, respect and freedom.

Three of the six capacities concern the processing of information. The first is the ability to update our beliefs and other attitudes intentionally, seeking out the judgments we ought to make and the attitudes we ought to hold. The second is the ability to reason intentionally, looking for grounds that support our judgments and for what those judgments in turn support. The third is the ability to direct perception intentionally, enlisting it in the service of the other two and learning to tell appearance from reality.

The other three capacities are relational. One is the ability to set and uphold standards and values for one another and for ourselves, making tacit commitments to live by them. Another is the ability to ascribe and accept accountability, holding each other and ourselves responsible to those norms and values. The last is the ability to take on the status of a person, accepting the implications of those commitments in the persona we present to others and to ourselves.

Pettit's defence is philosophical but informed by empirical work. Its core is an extended thought experiment in the form of a conceptual genealogy. He explores the likely, unplanned effects that the first appearance of language would have on the minds of humanoid creatures otherwise like us. The argument is that they would evolve a range of conversive practices, and that the skills those practices draw out are good models of the six capacities. The genealogy does not try to explain how these practices and skills actually arose among our ancestors. Instead, it uses the thought experiment to clarify their nature and their role in our social and mental life.