Can we read minds by imaging brains?
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Date
2022-02-23
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Taylor & Francis
Abstract
Will brain imaging technology soon enable neuroscientists to
read minds? We cannot answer this question without some
understanding of the state of the art in neuroimaging. But
neither can we answer this question without some under standing of the concept invoked by the term “mind reading.”
This article is an attempt to develop such understanding. Our
analysis proceeds in two stages. In the first stage, we provide
a categorical explication of mind reading. The categorical
explication articulates empirical conditions that must be
satisfied if mind reading is to be achieved. In the second
stage, we develop a metric for judging the proficiency of
mind reading experiments. The conception of mind reading
that emerges helps to reconcile folk psychological judgments
about what mind reading must involve with the constraints
imposed by empirical strategies for achieving it
Description
Keywords
Mind reading; decoding; brain imaging; explication