Cambridge Experientialism Revisited

Arnaud Dewalque (University of Liège)

Call experientialism about mentality the view that being in a mental state amounts to having an experience, while having a mind amounts to being capable of having experiences. In short, experience is a mark of the mental. Although experientialism has largely fallen out of favor, it was once the predominant view in the Cambridge School of analysis, explicitly endorsed by G.F. Stout, G.E. Moore and the early Russell, among others. Drawing on their views, I briefly discuss three challenges to experientialism and argue that they can all be successfully addressed. My conclusion is that experientialism is a respectable view of mentality.