Commons of the Mind

Since Descartes, it has seemed natural for philosophers to take reason to be complete in each individual reasoner. Locke wrote, "God, that hath given the World to Men in common, hath also given them Reason..."

In The Commons of the Mind, Annette C. Baier asks whether reason and other aspects of mind are possessed "in common" in the strong Lockean sense. She looks at the relation between two views of mind: on the one hand, the idea that mind is something possessed by each individual, independently of membership in a culture and a society, and on the other hand, the idea that mental activities and states are essentially social. She focuses her examination on three activities we take to be quintessentially mental ones, reasoning, intending, and moral reflection, in each case emphasizing the interdependence of minds, and the role of social practices in setting the norms governing these mental activities.

Professor Baier defends the view that both our reasoning and our intention-formation require a commons of the mind, that is, the background existence of shared reasonings, intentions, and actions. However, she concludes that moral reflection, as a social capacity, is still in its infancy and that a commons of the mind is by no means assured with regard to morality.

This volume is based on Professor Baier's Cams Lectures delivered at the meeting of the Eastern Division of the American Philosophical Association in December 1995.

Excerpt from The Commons of the Mind: "How are we to decide whether to take reason to be an essentially private thing that can, however, turn on a public display when it chooses to do so, or, like conversing, to be an essentially social skill, which can, however, be retained a while through periods of solitary confinement?"