Mental Content

Aimed at philsophy graduates this book investigates mental content in a systematic way and advances a number of claims about how mental content states are related to the body and the world. Internalism is the thesis that they are; externalism is the theory that they are not.

Preface v 1 The Location of Content 1 Introduction 1 Formulating externalism 3 The philosophical significance of externalism 9 Externalism and the world 10 Externalism and the mind 14 The scope and limits of externalism 30 Natural kind concepts and indexical 30 Why weak externalism is obviously true 36 The limits of strong externalism 44 Bodily sensations; character traits; the self 44 Complex concepts and some others 47 Psychological concepts 51 Perceptual content 58 The philosophical bearing of externalism 100 Externalism and substantialism 100 Externalism and physicalism 103 Externalism and skepticism 107 Externalism and psychological explanation 117 2 The Utility of Content 120 Psychology and biology 154 Content and science 155 Twin earth and teleology 157 Normativity again 159 Dual componency 161 Subpersonal content 163 Radical interpretation 164 Scepticism 166 3 The Basis of Content 169 Conceptual structure 186 Truth and falsehood 188 Logical relations 190 Modes of presentation 190 Holism 195 Predictiveness 196 Naturalism 196 Summary Conclusion: a Diagram of Content 209 Bibliography 212 Index 218