PHLB81H3 Chapter Notes - Chapter 8: Mind, Thought Experiment, Externalism
Document Summary
So your job involves two tasks: first, interpreting their minds, to find out what they believe, desire, and so on; and, second, interpreting their speech, to determine what their utterances mean. Radical interpretation: is the crucial link between a speaker"s utterances and their meanings. Speakers" beliefs are by and large true. (moreover, they are largely correct in making inferences and rational in forming expectations and making decisions. ) We can interpret and understand only those people whose belief systems are largely like our own. Content irrealism: there must be facts about the existence of a belief, independent of any interpretive scheme to be part of objective reality. An alternative line of consideration can lead to content relativism rather than content irrealism: Instead of accepting the indeterminacy of belief, we might hold that whether a given belief exists is relative to a scheme of interpretation.
