Single Idea 19704

[catalogued under 13. Knowledge Criteria / C. External Justification / 1. External Justification]

Full Idea

According to the 'mentalist' version of internalism, an externalist is someone who maintains that two people can be in the same present mental states while one has a justified belief and the other does not.

Gist of Idea

Externalism may imply that identical mental states might go with different justifications

Source

Hamid Vahid (Externalism/Internalism [2011], 2 A)

Book Reference

'Routledge Companion to Epistemology', ed/tr. Bernecker,S/Pritchard,D [Routledge 2014], p.145


A Reaction

It seems an unlikely coincidence, that we have identical mental states, but your is (say) reliably created but mine isn't. Nevertheless this does seem to be an implication of externalism, though not a definition of it.