What's It Like to Be a Human?

Philosophics — Philosophical and Political Ramblings · Jun 3, 2026 · 21m

Language philosopher Bry Willis critiques the common philosophical assumption that human consciousness is inherently more understandable than that of other species. While Thomas Nagel famously argued that we cannot truly know the internal experience of a bat, Willis contends that we possess no genuine first-person access to the minds of other people either. He argues that our perceived understanding of fellow humans is merely a well-calibrated model based on external observations and shared social conventions. This creates a deceptive illusion of proximity, leading us to mistake predictable…