The problem of other minds asks how we know that other people have consciousness, feelings, and inner lives like our own. We directly feel our own pain, but we do not directly feel another person's pain.
This problem matters because relationships, sympathy, morality, and law all assume that other people are not empty shells, but subjects of experience. In everyday life, when you see a friend crying, you believe they are suffering. Strictly speaking, however, you see expressions and behavior, not the suffering itself. Philosophy asks whether knowledge of other minds comes from analogy, behavior, language, or direct understanding within shared life. AI makes the question more complex: if a machine behaves as if it has emotions, should we recognize an inner life? The problem of other minds reminds us that recognizing another subject is not only a matter of knowledge, but also an ethical stance.
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