Introspection and Privileged Access

Two senses of privilege are distinguished: “epistemic privilege” indicates that first person claims about mental features are more likely to be knowledge, and “operational privilege” indicates that subjects have a special way or method to know their mind. The focus of this chapter is the epistemic privilege attached to introspection, and it addresses the following questions: 1. The Comparison Question: Introspection is privileged compared to what – that is, compared to what types of other beliefs? 2. The Advantage Question: What is exactly the nature of this advantage or privilege – is it immunity to a certain kind of error, or infallibility, or something else? 3. The Scope Question: What is the extent or scope of the privilege? Which mental features are accessible in a privileged way? 4.