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Single Idea 8872
[filed under theme 18. Thought / C. Content / 6. Broad Content
]
Full Idea
It has been widely supposed that externalism, which holds that the contents of a person's propositional attitudes are partly determined by factors of which the person may be ignorant, cannot be reconciled with first-person authority.
Gist of Idea
It is widely supposed that externalism cannot be reconciled with first-person authority
Source
Donald Davidson (Epistemology Externalized [1990], p.197)
Book Ref
Davidson,Donald: 'Subjective, Intersubjective, Objective' [OUP 2001], p.197
A Reaction
It is certainly a bit puzzling if you go around saying 'Actually, people don't know their own thoughts'. Davidson aims to defend first-person authority. The full story is developed in Tyler Burge's views on 'anti-individualism'.
The
39 ideas
with the same theme
[meanings aren't in the head ('Externalism')]:
12995
|
The name 'gold' means what we know of gold, and also further facts about it which only others know
[Leibniz]
|
12807
|
The word 'gold' means a hidden constitution known to experts, and not just its appearances
[Leibniz]
|
7531
|
We don't assert private thoughts; the objects are part of what we assert
[Russell]
|
7055
|
Externalist accounts of mental content begin in Wittgenstein
[Wittgenstein, by Heil]
|
4138
|
Is white simple, or does it consist of the colours of the rainbow?
[Wittgenstein]
|
9168
|
I can't distinguish elm trees, but I mean by 'elm' the same set of trees as everybody else
[Putnam]
|
5820
|
'Water' has an unnoticed indexical component, referring to stuff around here
[Putnam]
|
7612
|
Reference is social not individual, because we defer to experts when referring to elm trees
[Putnam]
|
8872
|
It is widely supposed that externalism cannot be reconciled with first-person authority
[Davidson]
|
8874
|
It is hard to interpret a speaker's actions if we take a broad view of the content
[Davidson]
|
6175
|
External identification doesn't mean external location, as with sunburn
[Davidson, by Rowlands]
|
3974
|
Our meanings are partly fixed by events of which we may be ignorant
[Davidson]
|
3464
|
There is no such thing as 'wide content'
[Searle]
|
3416
|
Content may match several things in the environment
[Kim]
|
3418
|
'Arthritis in my thigh' requires a social context for its content to be meaningful
[Kim]
|
3421
|
Content is best thought of as truth conditions
[Kim]
|
16428
|
Meanings aren't in the head, but that is because they are abstract
[Stalnaker]
|
16474
|
How can we know what we are thinking, if content depends on something we don't know?
[Stalnaker]
|
3997
|
Nothing shows that all content is 'wide', or that wide content has logical priority
[Lewis]
|
3998
|
If you don't share an external world with a brain-in-a-vat, then externalism says you don't share any beliefs
[Lewis]
|
3999
|
A spontaneous duplicate of you would have your brain states but no experience, so externalism would deny him any beliefs
[Lewis]
|
4000
|
Wide content derives from narrow content and relationships with external things
[Lewis]
|
2441
|
Truth conditions require a broad concept of content
[Fodor]
|
3982
|
How could the extrinsic properties of thoughts supervene on their intrinsic properties?
[Fodor]
|
7884
|
Most reductive accounts of representation imply broad content
[Papineau]
|
7863
|
If content hinges on matters outside of you, how can it causally influence your actions?
[Papineau]
|
8248
|
Phenomenology says thought is part of the world
[Deleuze/Guattari]
|
3207
|
Simple externalism is that the meaning just is the object
[Rey]
|
4067
|
Broad content entails the existence of the object of the thought
[Crane]
|
7058
|
Externalism is causal-historical, or social, or biological
[Heil]
|
4922
|
Consciousness involves interaction with persons and the world, as well as brain functions
[Edelman/Tononi]
|
3758
|
Semantic externalism ties content to the world, reducing error
[Bernecker/Dretske]
|
3104
|
Must we relate to some diamonds to understand them?
[Segal]
|
3103
|
Maybe content involves relations to a language community
[Segal]
|
3109
|
If content is external, so are beliefs and desires
[Segal]
|
3111
|
Externalism can't explain concepts that have no reference
[Segal]
|
3116
|
Maybe experts fix content, not ordinary users
[Segal]
|
3117
|
Concepts can survive a big change in extension
[Segal]
|
19300
|
The molecules may explain the water, but they are not what 'water' means
[Hale]
|