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semantic externalism wikipedia jump to content main menu main menu move to sidebar hide navigation main page contents current events random article about wikipedia contact us contribute help learn to edit community portal recent changes upload file special pages search search appearance donate create account log in personal tools donate create account log in contents move to sidebar hide top 1 overview 2 arguments for externalism 3 see also 4 references toggle the table of contents semantic externalism 5 languages deutsch español bahasa indonesia 日本語 português edit links article talk english read edit view history tools tools move to sidebar hide actions read edit view history general what links here related changes upload file permanent link page information cite this page get shortened url switch to legacy parser print export download as pdf printable version in other projects wikidata item appearance move to sidebar hide from wikipedia the free encyclopedia concept in the philosophy of language this article needs more citations please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources unsourced material may be challenged and removed find sources semantic externalism news newspapers books scholar jstor march 2016 learn how and when to remove this message in the philosophy of language semantic externalism the opposite of semantic internalism is the view that the meaning of a term is determined in whole or in part by factors external to the speaker according to an externalist position one can claim without contradiction that two speakers could be in exactly the same brain state at the time of an utterance and yet mean different things by that utterance that is at the least that their terms could pick out different referents overview edit the philosopher hilary putnam 1975 1985 proposed this position and summarized it with the statement meanings just ain t in the head although he did not use the term externalism at the time putnam is thought to have pioneered semantic externalism in his 1975 paper the meaning of meaning his twin earth thought experiment from the aforementioned paper is widely cited to illustrate his argument for externalism to this day alongside putnam credit also goes to saul kripke and tyler burge both of whom attacked internalism for independent reasons providing a foundation on which putnam s attacks rested externalism is generally thought to be a necessary consequence of any causal theory of reference since the causal history of a term is not internal the involvement of that history in determining the term s referent is enough to satisfy the externalist thesis however putnam and many subsequent externalists have maintained that not only reference but sense as well is determined at least in part by external factors see sense and reference while it is common to shorten semantic externalism to externalism within the context of the debate one must be careful in doing so as there are several distinct debates in philosophy that employ the terms externalism and internalism arguments for externalism edit putnam presented a variety of arguments for the externalist position the most famous being those that concerned twin earth subsequent philosophers have produced other related thought experiments most notably donald davidson s swamp man experiment however there have been numerous arguments for externalism that do not involve science fiction scenarios putnam pointed out for instance that he has no knowledge that could distinguish elm trees from beech trees he has precisely the same concept of one as of the other a deciduous tree growing in north america yet when putnam makes a statement containing the word elm we take him to be referring specifically to elms if he makes a claim about a property of elm trees it will be considered true or false depending upon whether that property applies to those trees which are in fact elms there is nothing in the head that could fix his reference thus rather he concluded his linguistic community containing some speakers who did know the difference between the two trees ensured that when he said elm he referred to elms putnam refers to this feature of language as the division of linguistic labor see also edit ideational theory of meaning semantic externalism as a response to skepticism reference theory of meaning swampman references edit putnam h 1975 1985 the meaning of meaning in philosophical papers vol 2 mind language and reality cambridge university press v t e philosophical skepticism types local moral pseudoskepticism radical religious jewish skeptics scientific solipsism philosophers indian sanjaya belatthiputta jayarāśi bhaṭṭa ajñana charvaka pre socratic xenophanes xeniades atomist metrodorus of chios anaxarchus nausiphanes academic skeptics arcesilaus diocles of cnidus lacydes telecles and evander hegesinus carneades hagnon of tarsus metrodorus of stratonicea aristanax clitomachus charmadas aeschines of neapolis philo of larissa cicero gaius aurelius cotta dio of alexandria simon foucher pyrrhonists pyrrho of elis timon agrippa sextus empiricus aenesidemus favorinus william chillingworth richard popkin robert fogelin benson mates scholasticism nicholas of autrecourt renaissance montaigne pierre charron francisco sanches uriel da costa pierre bayle humean david hume gottlob ernst schulze william drummond peter unger concepts acatalepsy aporia cartesian doubt epoché suspension of judgment ignoramus et ignorabimus skeptical scenarios brain in a vat dream argument evil demon five minute hypothesis münchhausen trilemma problem of the criterion problem of induction regress argument simulation hypothesis wax argument responses cogito ergo sum here is one hand semantic externalism process reliabilism epistemic closure contextualism relativism literature barhaspatya sutras academica cicero outlines of pyrrhonism against the dogmatists against the mathematicians essays montaigne discourse on the method a treatise of human nature aenesidemus retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title semantic_externalism oldid 1375500348 categories semantics theories of language epistemological theories internalism and externalism theory of mind hidden categories articles with short description short description matches wikidata articles needing additional references from march 2016 all articles needing additional references this page was last edited on 18 september 2026 at 04 10 utc page was rendered with parsoid text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike 4 0 license additional terms may apply by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc a non profit organization privacy policy about wikipedia disclaimers contact wikipedia legal safety contacts code of conduct developers statistics cookie statement mobile view search search toggle the table of contents semantic externalism 5 languages 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