Single Idea 4000

[catalogued under 18. Thought / C. Content / 6. Broad Content]

Full Idea

Wide content is derivative, a product of narrow content and relationships of acquaintance with external things.

Clarification

'Wide' content is meaning which depends on how the world is, not on a mental state

Gist of Idea

Wide content derives from narrow content and relationships with external things

Source

David Lewis (Lewis: reduction of mind (on himself) [1994], p.430)

Book Reference

'A Companion to the Philosophy of Mind', ed/tr. Guttenplan,Samuel [Blackwell 1995], p.430


A Reaction

I would say: content is a mental state, but it is created and fixed by a community, and wide content is the part fixed by experts in the community. We can all be wrong about meanings, and occasionally most of us are wrong about a specialised meaning.