How to Understand Others

An incisive and witty philosophical guide to how we can make sense of ourselves and other people

How do we really come to ‘understand’ others—or even to comprehend our own minds? And when we claim that we do, are we simply deceiving ourselves? Failure to grasp, perceive or appreciate thoughts and actions pervade private and public life, from arguments between friends to conflict between nations.

In this thought-provoking book, philosopher Constantine Sandis systemically unravels what it is to understand and to be understood—and uncovers how we might become better at it. He looks at how easily fooled we are about ourselves, how relations with our nearest and dearest are riven with blindness and bias, and how we could better understand the past and other cultures. Sandis shows that far from the old adage that you cannot understand others if you cannot first understand yourself, actually the near reverse is true: we can only grasp ourselves in relation to our world.