Our evidence is much, much, much better in the case of people.  We talk to them, dance with them, have sex with them, have a lifetime of interpreting subtleties of their tone and body language and power politics.  We are the same species as they are.<p>It makes sense to talk about not knowing the mind of a cat or dog in a way that it does not make sense to say the same of a person, even if you grant that &quot;you never really know someone else,&quot; and even if you grant the technical possibility that everyone else is just a sophisticated automaton (though it&#x27;s unclear what that would even mean, or how that would change anything).