Abstract

This chapter focuses on a central idea in any philosophical discussion of introspection: privileged access. The chapter follows Byrne in distinguishing two theses associated with this idea: the view that introspection is different from perception or inference in some relevant respect (the different from thesis) and the view that introspection is better than perception or inference in some relevant respect (the better than thesis). The chapter explains how the rationalist account endorses the different from thesis but rejects the better than thesis. It also outlines several possibilities of introspective error and ignorance.