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Because we can't be sure whether two people interpret what "inner monologue" means and whether they think it describes a phenomenon that actually isn't differen

Because we can't be sure whether two people interpret what "inner monologue" means and whether they think it describes a phenomenon that actually isn't different between them and other people. For example, I can think of interpretations of "I picture objects that I'm thinking about" that range from me not experiencing the phenomenon to me indeed experiencing the phenomenon. To say that you're not experiencing something that other people are experiencing in their head is a solipsistic notion where you hypothesize an experience that you imagine others are having and then discard it for being different than yours.

TeMPOraL 2y ago
And here I thought this was solved decades ago - I need to find the source, but I read about an old study where people describe their experience, and the answers were all over the "range from me not experiencing the phenomenon to me indeed experiencing the phenomenon". Then again, it's trivially reproducible - people self-report all variants of inner monologue, including lack of it, whenever a question about it pops up on-line. Same is the case with imagination - aphantasia is a thing (I would know, I have it).
- hombre_fatal 2y ago
  I'm responding to "why can't we just take their word for it?" That you and I can come up with different ways to describe our subjective experience in conversation doesn't mean that we have a different subjective experience. Especially not when relayed by a species that's frequently convinced it has a trending mental disorder from TikTok.
  - TeMPOraL 2y ago
    We can keep talking about it, and assuming we're both honest, we'll arrive at the answer to whether or not our subjective experiences differ. To fail at that would require us to have so little in common that we wouldn't be able to communicate at all. Which is obviously not the case, neither for us, nor for almost every possible pair of humans currently alive.
    - hombre_fatal 2y ago
      On the other hand, a deep one on one discussion isn't what's happening in casual debates online about to what degree each of us has an inner monologue. And because we don't have so little in common, I would be resistant to concluding that my subjective experience is so different than everyone else's. To claim that I'm different requires me to have an accurate model of what other people are experiencing, not just an accurate report of what I'm experiencing. Look up examples of this on reddit and you'll find a lot of larping. I would take most of it with a grain of salt as you should with any story-telling you encounter on social media. If we're so reliable, there wouldn't be fake mental illness epidemics on TikTok regarding experiences far more concrete than fuzzy notions like inner monologue.

TeMPOraL 2y ago

And here I thought this was solved decades ago - I need to find the source, but I read about an old study where people describe their experience, and the answers were all over the "range from me not experiencing the phenomenon to me indeed experiencing the phenomenon". Then again, it's trivially reproducible - people self-report all variants of inner monologue, including lack of it, whenever a question about it pops up on-line. Same is the case with imagination - aphantasia is a thing (I would know, I have it).

hombre_fatal 2y ago
I'm responding to "why can't we just take their word for it?" That you and I can come up with different ways to describe our subjective experience in conversation doesn't mean that we have a different subjective experience. Especially not when relayed by a species that's frequently convinced it has a trending mental disorder from TikTok.
- TeMPOraL 2y ago
  We can keep talking about it, and assuming we're both honest, we'll arrive at the answer to whether or not our subjective experiences differ. To fail at that would require us to have so little in common that we wouldn't be able to communicate at all. Which is obviously not the case, neither for us, nor for almost every possible pair of humans currently alive.
  - hombre_fatal 2y ago
    On the other hand, a deep one on one discussion isn't what's happening in casual debates online about to what degree each of us has an inner monologue. And because we don't have so little in common, I would be resistant to concluding that my subjective experience is so different than everyone else's. To claim that I'm different requires me to have an accurate model of what other people are experiencing, not just an accurate report of what I'm experiencing. Look up examples of this on reddit and you'll find a lot of larping. I would take most of it with a grain of salt as you should with any story-telling you encounter on social media. If we're so reliable, there wouldn't be fake mental illness epidemics on TikTok regarding experiences far more concrete than fuzzy notions like inner monologue.