Internalism and externalism

This essay will examine internalism and externalism, two classifications of theories which have differing perspectives on where our justification of beliefs comes from. The methods by which the two seek to have justified beliefs will be examined and a series of thought experiments will be used to illustrate the differences, as well as their respective strengths and weaknesses. The question of whether the two are asking fundamentally different questions will then be raised. Justification for the externalist, on the other hand, is what makes a belief likely to be true, reasoning internally isn’t sufficient on its own. Note in this essay it will be the reliabilist version of externalism that is referred to. It requires that the externalists’ justified…

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…

One definition of internalism, as provided by American philosopher Laurence BonJour, is as follows; “A theory of justification is internalist if and only if it requires that all of the factors needed for a belief to be epistemically justified for a given person be cognitively accessible to that person, internal to his cognitive perspective.” (Feldman & Conee, “Internalism Defended,” pg. 407). The key part of this definition is the emphasis on the source of the individual’s justification being…

Consequently, time-space synaesthesia had not previously been considered a necessary component of such an investigation. However, knowledge of the fact that time-space synaesthesia influences word meaning means that such a lack of consideration is no longer appropriate. In an internalist account of meaning, time-space synaesthesia would be regarded as part of meaning. However, the theory is problematic as, because meaning is argued to be an internal concept, not only would meaning differ between…