Single Idea 16474

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

Full Idea

How can we know what we ourselves are thinking if the very existence of the content of our thought may depend on facts of which we are ignorant?

Gist of Idea

How can we know what we are thinking, if content depends on something we don't know?

Source

Robert C. Stalnaker (Mere Possibilities [2012], 5)

Book Reference

Stalnaker,Robert C.: 'Mere Possibilities' [Princeton 2012], p.133


A Reaction

This has always been my main doubt about externalism. I may defer to experts about what I intend by an 'elm' (Putnam's example), but what I mean by elm is thereby a fuzzy tall tree with indeterminate leaves. I don't know the meaning of 'elm'!