A Dictionary of Philosophy, Third Edition
Internalism and externalism
. A set of related dichotomies applying in various spheres, notably philosophy of mind and epistemology. In general, internalism about something analyses it in terms confined to a certain relevant sphere, while externalism insists that the analysis must involve terms outside that sphere. In philosophy of mind, the debate concerns the contents of various mental states. Internalism treats them as confined within the person who has them and as independent of anything outside, so that to find whether a person has a given mental state we need only examine that person, while externalism insists that for at least some cases this may not be so, notably for thinking, believing, etc., where it may quote Putnam’s slogan, ‘“Meanings” just ain’t in the head!’. Putnam imagines a world called Twin Earth. This is exactly like Earth (and is inhabited by counterparts or doppelgängers of ourselves) except that the liquid in its seas and lakes etc. is not H2O but has a different chemical composition, XYZ, but this can only be detected by scientists, since the liquid in ordinary situations behaves just like water. For Putnam, the liquid cannot then be water, but we could call it ‘twater’. Twin Earthians, however, call it ‘water’, i.e. they use the same sound ‘water’ for it, since all the physical facts about them, including the sounds they utter, are the same as those true of us in the corresponding circumstances; ‘water’ is our word for their liquid, and they would only utter ‘twater’ if they envisaged some further Twin Twin Earth. Now suppose that Smith, on Earth, thinks, ‘Water is wet’. His doppelgänger on Twin Earth will also have a thought he will express as ‘Water is wet’, but he will be thinking not of water but of twater, the only liquid he has met. Similarly, externalism claims, if I have never heard of, say, Vesuvius, and have had no kind of contact with it, then I cannot be thinking of Vesuvius, even if I have a mental picture that happens to resemble Vesuvius closely and I use the sound ‘Vesuvius’ to name it. In each case, for externalism, what one is thinking of depends essentially on something outside the thinker. Externalism grounds an apparent objection to the IDENTITY THEORY OF MIND, for if thoughts or sensations depend essentially on things outside the thinker, how can they be identical with states of the brain, which do not in the relevant sense depend on anything external? For internal and external realism see REALISM.
For the epistemological sense of internalism and externalism see EPISTEMOLOGY.
In ethics, ‘internalism’ has been used of the view that reasons for acting, and especially moral requirements, must be capable of providing motivations for action if they are to be such; and of the view that they do provide such motivations. Externalism denies this need. Various versions of the distinction exist.
See also CONTENT, INTENSIONALITY AND INTENTIONALITY, INDIVIDUALISM, MIND.
T.Burge, ‘Individualism and the mental’, Midwest Studies in Philosophy, vol. IV, Minnesota UP, 1979. (Cf. also his ‘Individualism and psychology’, Philosophical Review, 1986. Burge is a pioneer in advocating externalism in philosophy of mind.)
S.Darwall, Impartial Reason, Cornell UP, 1983, esp. chapter 5. (Internalism and externalism in ethics. See also D.Brink, Moral Realism and the Foundations of Ethics, Cambridge UP, 1989, esp. chapter 3.)
R.Jay Wallace, ‘How to argue about practical reason’, Mind, 1990. (See p. 356 for ethical sense of ‘internalism’.)
C.Macdonald, ‘Weak externalism and mind-body identity’, Mind, 1990. (Uses one version of strong/weak distinction to claim externalism is compatible with one version of identity theory of mind.)
C.McGinn, Mental Content, Blackwell, 1989. (Defends one kind of weak externalism and draws some implications. Cf. also review by D.Owens in Mind, 1990.)
H.Putnam, “The meaning of “meaning”’, in his Mind, Language and Reality, vol. II, Cambridge UP, 1975. (Putnam and Burge are pioneers of the main philosophy of mind debate in its modern form, though it has earlier roots. For slogan, see p. 227.)
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