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Single Idea 6174
[filed under theme 15. Nature of Minds / A. Nature of Mind / 6. Anti-Individualism
]
Full Idea
If someone knew that a thinker had, without realising it, been transported to Twin Earth, they would almost certainly be a higher authority on the content of the thinker's thoughts than would the thinker.
Clarification
On Twin Earth, water looks like H2O, but isn't H2O
Gist of Idea
If someone is secretly transported to Twin Earth, others know their thoughts better than they do
Source
Mark Rowlands (Externalism [2003], Ch.8)
Book Ref
Rowlands,Mark: 'Externalism' [Acumen 2003], p.142
A Reaction
They would certainly be a higher authority on the truth of the thinker's thoughts, but only in the way that you might think I hold a diamond when I know it is a club. If the thinker believes it is H2O, the fact that it isn't is irrelevant to content.
The
16 ideas
from 'Externalism'
6177
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Moral intuition seems unevenly distributed between people
[Rowlands]
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6178
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It is common to see the value of nature in one feature, such as life, diversity, or integrity
[Rowlands]
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6156
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The 17th century reintroduced atoms as mathematical modes of Euclidean space
[Rowlands]
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6158
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Supervenience of mental and physical properties often comes with token-identity of mental and physical particulars
[Rowlands]
|
6157
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Tokens are dated, concrete particulars; types are their general properties or kinds
[Rowlands]
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6155
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Supervenience is a one-way relation of dependence or determination between properties
[Rowlands]
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6154
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It is argued that wholes possess modal and counterfactual properties that parts lack
[Rowlands]
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6152
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Minds are rational, conscious, subjective, self-knowing, free, meaningful and self-aware
[Rowlands]
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6159
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Strong idealism is the sort of mess produced by a Cartesian separation of mind and world
[Rowlands]
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6161
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Structuralism is neo-Kantian idealism, with language playing the role of categories of understanding
[Rowlands]
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6163
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If bivalence is rejected, then excluded middle must also be rejected
[Rowlands]
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6168
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The content of a thought is just the meaning of a sentence
[Rowlands]
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6167
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Action is bodily movement caused by intentional states
[Rowlands]
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6170
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Natural kinds are defined by their real essence, as in gold having atomic number 79
[Rowlands]
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6173
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Content externalism implies that we do not have privileged access to our own minds
[Rowlands]
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6174
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If someone is secretly transported to Twin Earth, others know their thoughts better than they do
[Rowlands]
|