Abstract

This chapter examines the thesis that there is a deep-lying asymmetry between first- and third-person knowledge, by examining the idea that first-person knowledge is direct. The focus is on the propositional attitudes, in particular that of belief. Whereas philosophers generally take self-knowledge of belief to be direct and essentially different from knowledge of the beliefs of others, experimental psychologists have long challenged the idea that there is an important epistemic asymmetry between first- and third-person knowledge of belief. By drawing on some of the psychological literature, I argue that the psychologists are more nearly right. Although there are some interesting epistemic differences between first- and third-person knowledge of belief, the assumption of a deep-lying epistemic asymmetry is mistaken. In particular, I suggest, inference plays an important role both in the first- and in the third-person case.