God and Other Minds is the name of a 1967 book by Alvin Plantinga

Alvin Plantinga

Alvin Carl Plantinga is an American analytic philosopher and the emeritus John A. O'Brien Professor of Philosophy at the University of Notre Dame. He is known for his work in philosophy of religion, epistemology, metaphysics, and Christian apologetics...

 which re-kindled serious philosophical debate on the Existence of God

Existence of God

Arguments for and against the existence of God have been proposed by philosophers, theologians, scientists, and others. In philosophical terms, arguments for and against the existence of God involve primarily the sub-disciplines of epistemology and ontology , but also of the theory of value, since...

 in Anglophone philosophical circles by arguing that belief in God was like belief in other minds: although neither could be demonstrated conclusively against a determined sceptic both were fundamentally rational. The philosophical argument has been developed and criticised by Plantinga and others in the succeeding 40 years.

The Book God and Other Minds

God and Other Minds: A Study of the Rational Justification of Belief in God was originally published by Cornell University Press in (1967). An edition with a new preface by Plantinga was published in 1990 (ISBN 978-0801497353). The book has the following chapters:

Part I: Natural Theology

• Ch 1: The Cosmological Argument
• Ch 2: The Ontological Argument - I
• Ch 3: The Ontological Argument - II
• Ch 4: The Teleological Argument

Part II: Natural Atheology

• Ch 5: The Problem of Evil
• Ch 6: The Freewill Defense
• Ch 7: Verificationism and other Atheologica

Part III: God and Other Minds

• Ch 8: Other Minds and Analogy
• Ch 9: Alternatives to the Analogical Position
• Ch 10: God and Analogy

Reaction of notable commentators

The book has been widely cited

• Michael A. Slote in The Journal of Philosophy  considered that "This book is one of the most important to have appeared in this century on the philosophy of religion, and makes outstanding contributions to our understanding of the problem of other minds as well".

Subsequent development of the Argument

The psychologist Justin L. Barrett

Justin L. Barrett

Justin L. Barrett is senior researcher of the Centre for Anthropology and Mind and The Institute for Cognitive and Evolutionary Anthropology at Oxford University.-Career:...

 suggests that "Believing that other humans have minds arises from many of the same mental tools and environmental information from which belief in gods or God comes...no scientific evidence exists that proves people have minds" and that "although some small number of academics...claim to believe that people do not have minds...they do not socially interact in accordance with such a belief ...[and] such a peculiar belief about minds (whether or not it is true) simply will not spread...a huge number of mental tools all converge on the nonreflective belief in minds"

See also

• Problem of other minds
  Problem of other minds
  The problem of other minds has traditionally been regarded as an epistemological challenge raised by the skeptic. The challenge may be expressed as follows: given that I can only observe the behavior of others, how can I know that others have minds? The thought behind the question is that no matter...
  
  
• SEP article on Other Minds