Internalism and externalism

Consequently, knowledge is entirely sensitive to our environment and the outside world. In order to know something we must know what is not. For example, we must know how something malfunctions in order to know the correct functioning of it. Therefore, if one did not experience it, it cannot be used as knowledge because there is no way to distinguish what is right from wrong. That is why it’s critical to have a pure mental state when determining what composes knowledge. He defends his argument by arguing against the “internalist conception of mind” (Williamson 127). Internalism states that what goes on in your head completely determines your experience as whole, without addressing any potential environmental factors. However, knowledge must be inclusive towards any external stimuli which is why Williamson rejects this theory and supports a more externalist point of view. Externalism is portrayed as more natural since it has “world-involving contents”, which makes knowledge more central to the mind since it is directly involved with our perceptions and our memories. Whereas, internalists believe that there can be duplicate instances of a situation that can account for knowledge. An example would include a brain in…