Internalism and Externalism in Semantics and Epistemology

Internalism and Externalism in Semantics and Epistemology
Author: Sanford C. Goldberg
Publisher: Clarendon Press
Total Pages: 320
Release: 2007-10-11
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0191534676

To what extent are meaning, on the one hand, and knowledge, on the other, determined by aspects of the 'outside world'? Internalism and Externalism in Semantics and Epistemology presents twelve specially written essays exploring these debates in metaphysics and epistemology and the connections between them. In so doing, it examines how issues connected with the nature of mind and language bear on issues about the nature of knowledge and justification (and vice versa). Topics discussed include the compatibility of semantic externalism and epistemic internalism, the variety of internalist and externalist positions (both semantic and epistemic), semantic externalism's implications for the epistemology of reasoning and reflection, and the possibility of arguments from the theory of mental content to the theory of epistemic justification (and vice versa).

Internalism and Externalism in Semantics and Epistemology

Internalism and Externalism in Semantics and Epistemology
Author: Sanford Goldberg
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 312
Release: 2007-10-11
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 0199275750

To what extent are meaning, on the one hand, and knowledge, on the other, determined by aspects of the 'outside world'? Internalism and Externalism in Semantics and Epistemology presents twelve specially written essays exploring these debates in metaphysics and epistemology and the connections between them. In so doing, it examines how issues connected with the nature of mind and language bear on issues about the nature of knowledge and justification (and vice versa).Topics discussed include the compatibility of semantic externalism and epistemic internalism, the variety of internalist and externalist positions (both semantic and epistemic), semantic externalism's implications for the epistemology of reasoning and reflection, and the possibility of arguments from the theoryof mental content to the theory of epistemic justification (and vice versa).

The Labyrinth of Mind and World

The Labyrinth of Mind and World
Author: Sanjit Chakraborty
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 230
Release: 2019-12-06
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1000757498

This book carries forward the discourse on the mind’s engagement with the world. It reviews the semantic and metaphysical debates around internalism and externalism, the location of content and the indeterminacy of meaning in language. The volume analyzes the writings of Jackson, Chomsky, Putnam, Quine, Bilgrami and others, to reconcile opposing theories of language and the mind. It ventures into Cartesian ontology and Fregean semantics to understand how mental content becomes world-oriented in our linguistic communication. Further, the author explores the liaison between the mind and the world from the phenomenological perspective, particularly, Husserl’s linguistic turn and Heidegger’s intersubjective entreaty for Dasein. The book conceives of thought as a biological and socio-linguistic product which engages with the mind-world question through the conceptual and causal apparatuses of language. A major intervention in the field of philosophy of language, this book will be useful for scholars and researchers interested in philosophy, phenomenology, epistemology and metaphysics.

Epistemic Justification

Epistemic Justification
Author: Laurence BonJour
Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
Total Pages: 250
Release: 2003-04-22
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 9780631182849

Ever since Plato it has been thought that one knows only if one's belief hits the mark of truth and does so with adequate justification. The issues debated by Laurence BonJour and Ernest Sosa concern mostly the nature and conditions of such epistemic justification, and its place in our understanding of human knowledge. Presents central issues pertaining to internalism vs. externalism and foundationalism vs. virtue epistemology in the form of a philosophical debate. Introduces students to fundamental questions within epistemology while engaging in contemporary debates. Written by two of today’s foremost epistemologists. Includes an extensive bibliography.

Epistemic Justification

Epistemic Justification
Author: William P. Alston
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Total Pages: 376
Release: 1989
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 9780801495441

Epistemic Justification collects twelve distinguished and influential essays in epistemology by William P. Alston taken from a body of work spanning almost two decades. They represent the gradual development of Alston's thought in epistemology.He concentrates on topics that are central to contemporary epistemology and provides a much-needed and useful map to these issues be explicitly distinguishing and interrelating concepts of justification used in epistemology. More important, he develops and defends his own distinctive epistemic view throughout the volume. Notably, he argues for an account of justification that combines both internalist and externalist features. In addition, he discusses various forms of foundationalism and supports a moderate form. Finally, Alston demonstrates that the epistemic circularity that often plagues our attempts to validate our basic sources of belief does not prevent our showing that they are reliable sources of knowledge.

The Subject's Point of View

The Subject's Point of View
Author: Katalin Farkas
Publisher: OUP Oxford
Total Pages: 226
Release: 2010-08-19
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 019161551X

Descartes's philosophy has had a considerable influence on the modern conception of the mind, but many think that this influence has been largely negative. The main project of The Subject's Point of View is to argue that discarding certain elements of the Cartesian conception would be much more difficult than critics seem to allow, since it is tied to our understanding of basic notions, including the criteria for what makes someone a person, or one of us. The crucial feature of the Cartesian view defended here is not dualism - which is not adopted - but internalism. Internalism is opposed to the widely accepted externalist thesis, which states that some mental features constitutively depend on certain features of our physical and social environment. In contrast, this book defends the minority internalist view, which holds that the mind is autonomous, and though it is obviously affected by the environment, this influence is merely contingent and does not delimit what is thinkable in principle. Defenders of the externalist view often present their theory as the most thoroughgoing criticism of the Cartesian conception of the mind; Katalin Farkas offers a defence of an uncompromising internalist Cartesian conception.

A Companion to Epistemology

A Companion to Epistemology
Author: Jonathan Dancy
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 832
Release: 2009-12-15
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 9781444315097

With nearly 300 entries on key concepts, review essays on central issues, and self-profiles by leading scholars, this companion is the most comprehensive and up-to-date single volume reference guide to epistemology. Epistemology from A-Z is comprised of 296 articles on important epistemological concepts that have been extensively revised to bring the volume up-to-date, with many new and re-written entries reflecting developments in the field Includes 20 new self-profiles by leading epistemologists Contains 10 new review essays on central issues of epistemology

Anti-Individualism

Anti-Individualism
Author: Sanford C. Goldberg
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2010-09-09
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 9780521169240

Sanford Goldberg argues that a proper account of the communication of knowledge through speech has anti-individualistic implications for both epistemology and the philosophy of mind and language. In Part 1 he offers a novel argument for anti-individualism about mind and language, the view that the contents of one's thoughts and the meanings of one's words depend for their individuation on one's social and natural environment. In Part 2 he discusses the epistemic dimension of knowledge communication, arguing that the epistemic characteristics of communication-based beliefs depend on features of the cognitive and linguistic acts of the subject's social peers. In acknowledging an ineliminable social dimension to mind, language, and the epistemic categories of knowledge, justification, and rationality, his book develops fundamental links between externalism in the philosophy of mind and language, on the one hand, and externalism is epistemology, on the other.