How Does First-person Authority Over Thought Come into Being in Jones' Myth

Abstract

This paper discusses how a discourse of “reporting” thoughts is possible in Jones' myth of EPM. It is unclear how it is possible for the Ryleans to “report” their own thoughts in Jones's myth. Sellars's answer is found in correspondence between Castañeda and Sellars. According to it, it is possible to “report” a thought by “respond[ing] to thought that-p by saying “I am thinking that-p””. I discuss the process by which the first-person authority over their own thoughts is established in EPM through examining of what it means to respond to their own thoughts in meta-thoughts and why it makes it possible for them to “report” their thoughts.