Abstract :
I reconsider the idea that there is an analogy between belief in otherminds and belief in God, and examine two approaches to the relevant beliefs. The‘explanatory inductive’ approach raises difficulties in both contexts, and involvesquestionable assumptions. The ‘expressivist’ approach is more promising, andpresupposes a more satisfactory metaphysical framework in the first context. Itsapplication to God is similarly insightful, and offers an intellectually respectable,albeit resistible, version of the doctrine that nature is a book of lessons
