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Full Idea
Externalism maintains that our minds 'reach out' into our physical environment, at least in the sense that our states of mind can depend for their very existence and identity upon what things that environment contains.
Gist of Idea
Externalists say minds depend on environment for their very existence and identity
Source
E.J. Lowe (Introduction to the Philosophy of Mind [2000], Ch. 6)
Book Ref
Lowe,E.J.: 'Introduction to the Philosophy of Mind' [CUP 2000], p.148
A Reaction
A nice statement of the externalist view. Does this mean that a brain in a vat would not have a mind? Does a photograph 'reach out' to its subject-matter?
| 5987 | Alcmaeon was the first to say the brain is central to thinking [Alcmaeon, by Staden, von] |
| 5718 | The mind is in the middle of the breast, because there we experience fear and joy [Lucretius] |
| 5717 | The mind is a part of a man, just like a hand or an eye [Lucretius] |
| 6003 | Galen showed by experiment that the brain controls the body [Galen, by Hankinson] |
| 18462 | The soul is everywhere and nowhere in the body, and must be its cause [Porphyry] |
| 6261 | The soul is in the brain, as shown by head injuries [Montaigne] |
| 21840 | A meeting of man and animal can be deterritorialization (like a wasp with an orchid) [Deleuze] |
| 5802 | Representations are in the head, but their content is not, as stories don't exist in their books [Dretske] |
| 6641 | Externalists say minds depend on environment for their very existence and identity [Lowe] |