Thesis (Revise). / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Stanford University. / Includes abstract and vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Georgetown University, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2006. / Title from first page of PDF file. Includes bibliographical references (p. 253-265).

Undergraduate honors paper--Mount Holyoke College, 2007. Dept. of Philosophy. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 106-107).

This thesis is broadly about the structure of propositional knowledge and the ways in which an individual knower can have such knowledge. More specifically, it is about the epistemology of factive psychological attitudes and the view that knowing is a purely mental state. I take such a view as being not so much a theory of knowledge, but rather an accounting of how we know, or the ways in which we know. In arguing for this view I offer a different interpretation of certain epistemic conditions, like seeing and remembering and try to show how understanding the metaphysics of mental states and events clarifies the relation between such conditions and the factive psychological attitudes implicit in them. Part one of the thesis is occupied with a discussion about a form of externalism popular in contemporary philosophy of mind, content externalism and a form of externalism popularized by Timothy Williamson which I refer to in the thesis as attitude externalism. I argue that content externalism in the style of Tyler Burge, arguably one of its most prominent advocates, faces a rather serious dilemma when it comes to the role that mental states and specific mental events are meant to play in psychological explanation. The view endorsed by Timothy Williamson, which says that some psychological attitudes, factive attitudes like ‘seeing that’, can be thought of as broad prime conditions is offered as a way in which the content externalist can avoid this dilemma and retain a causal-psychological explanatory thesis about mental states and events. The second part of the thesis is concerned with the epistemology of factive psychological attitudes and I focus carefully on two paradigmatic cases – seeing and remembering. I dedicate a chapter to each and offer a series of arguments to the effect that seeing and remembering though they may be thought of as ways of having propositional knowledge, it is not necessary that they entail knowing nor that they be stative to do so. In this sense, there is a strong and important divergence in the dialectic of the thesis from the view offered by Timothy Williamson, on which many points in this thesis there is agreement. I conclude the thesis with a discussion on what I take to be a fundamental epistemological principle, which I call the multiformity principle. The argument there is that when a subject knows that p, there is always a specific way in which that subject knows. I further take this principle to reveal the fact that propositional knowledge is an intrinsically disjunctive phenomenon.

O objetivo da tese é investigar a constituição da interioridade a partir de uma abordagem externalista. Os processos pelos quais o autoconhecimento é constituído são considerados como estando associados ao desenvolvimento da perspectiva da primeira pessoa. Adotar uma perspectiva de primeira pessoa é tornar-se capaz de fazer referência a si mesmo e conhecer seus próprios estados mentais e corporais. A autoconsciência e o autoconhecimento foram tradicionalmente subsumidos à idéia de Descartes da autoridade da primeira pessoa. Segundo a tese cartesiana, teríamos acesso privilegiado e não-empírico aos nossos estados mentais que se expressaria por meio de um conhecimento. A tese central do externalismo afirma, ao contrário, que o conteúdo dos estados mentais é constituído, em parte, pelas relações com o ambiente. A adoção da tese externalista coloca em dúvida a suposição cartesiana de que temos acesso privilegiado aos conteúdos de nossos pensamentos, restringindo, assim, a autoridade da primeira pessoa. O externalismo perceptivo de Davidson, por exemplo, oferece uma solução ternária eu-intérprete-mundo para as origens do autoconhecimento. A tese de Davidson é apresentada como reconciliando o autoconhecimento e as idéias centrais do externalismo. São apresentados dois modelos da gênese externa do eu:1) os modelos ecológicos que propõem um desenvolvimento do sentido de eu como uma função das interações do eu com o ambiente; 2) o modelo psicológico de Winnicott que propõe a emergência do sentido de eu a partir de uma relação ternária entre o eu, os outros e os objetos transicionais. Defendemos a tese de que o modelo psicológico de Winnicott é o mais adequado para descrever a conceitualização epistemológica de Davidson das origens externalistas do autoconhecimento. / The aim of the thesis is to investigate the formation of interiority from an externalist approach. The processes by which the self is constituted are considered to be associated with the development of the first-person perspective. Adopt a first-person perspective is to become able to refer to yourself and know your own mental and bodily states. Self-awareness and self-knowledge were traditionally subsumed under the idea of Descartes first person authority. According to the Cartesian view, we would have preferred and non-empirical to our mental states that would be expressed by a knowledge access. The central thesis of externalism asserts, instead, that the content of mental states consists in part by relationships with the environment. The adoption of the externalist thesis calls into question the Cartesian assumption that we have privileged access to the contents of our thoughts, thus restricting the authority of the first person. The perceptual externalism Davidson, for example, offers a ternary I-interpreter-world solution to the origins of self. Davidson's thesis is presented as reconciling the self and the central ideas of externalism. Are presented two models of external genesis of I: 1) ecological models that propose a development of a sense of self as a due to interactions between the self and the environment; 2) the psychological model Winnicott proposes that the emergence of the sense of self from a ternary relationship between the self, others and the transitional objects. We defend the thesis that the psychological model of Winnicott is most suitable for describing the epistemological conceptualization of the origins Davidson externalist self-knowledge.

Made available in DSpace on 2015-05-14T12:12:01Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 arquivototal.pdf: 1294479 bytes, checksum: e53ed335fa7437a885c947cce7aa4d22 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010-07-31 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / Taking as a starting point for issues of contemporary debate about externalismo in Philosophy of Mind, this paper intends to propose a dialogical possibility of externalism with the structure of mental language ockhamiana. By adopting their line-logical semantics in the field of nominalism, Ockham describes the need relational structures of our subjective with the outside world to mind of the knowing subject. The way he lays the formation and connection of signs to the words and concepts requires the contact of the intellect with the world outside the structures of the agent's subjective knowledge. The work will be divided into three parts. In part I present the entire system and determines which involves the construction of the system ockhamiano. In Part II I discuss the contemporary debate about externalism in philosophy of mind. In Part III I present my vision of how we fit into the Ockham externalist theories in philosophy of mind. / Tomando como ponto de partida questões do debate contemporâneo acerca do externalismo em Filosofia da Mente, o presente trabalho pretende propor uma possibilidade dialogal do externalismo com a estrutura da linguagem mental ockhamiana. Ao adotar sua linha lógico-semântica no campo do nominalismo, Ockham descreve a necessidade relacional de nossas estruturas subjetivas com o mundo externo á mente do sujeito cognoscente. A forma com que ele estabelece a formação e ligação dos signos aos conceitos e ás palavras pressupõe o contato do intelecto com o mundo externo às estruturas subjetivos do agente do conhecimento. O trabalho será dividido em três partes. Na parte I apresento todo o sistema que envolve e determina a construção do sistema ockhamiano. Na parte II abordo o debate contemporâneo acerca do externalismo em filosofia da mente. Na parte III apresento minha visão de como podemos enquadrar Ockham dentro das teorias externalistas em filosofia da mente.

O objetivo da tese é investigar a constituição da interioridade a partir de uma abordagem externalista. Os processos pelos quais o autoconhecimento é constituído são considerados como estando associados ao desenvolvimento da perspectiva da primeira pessoa. Adotar uma perspectiva de primeira pessoa é tornar-se capaz de fazer referência a si mesmo e conhecer seus próprios estados mentais e corporais. A autoconsciência e o autoconhecimento foram tradicionalmente subsumidos à idéia de Descartes da autoridade da primeira pessoa. Segundo a tese cartesiana, teríamos acesso privilegiado e não-empírico aos nossos estados mentais que se expressaria por meio de um conhecimento. A tese central do externalismo afirma, ao contrário, que o conteúdo dos estados mentais é constituído, em parte, pelas relações com o ambiente. A adoção da tese externalista coloca em dúvida a suposição cartesiana de que temos acesso privilegiado aos conteúdos de nossos pensamentos, restringindo, assim, a autoridade da primeira pessoa. O externalismo perceptivo de Davidson, por exemplo, oferece uma solução ternária eu-intérprete-mundo para as origens do autoconhecimento. A tese de Davidson é apresentada como reconciliando o autoconhecimento e as idéias centrais do externalismo. São apresentados dois modelos da gênese externa do eu:1) os modelos ecológicos que propõem um desenvolvimento do sentido de eu como uma função das interações do eu com o ambiente; 2) o modelo psicológico de Winnicott que propõe a emergência do sentido de eu a partir de uma relação ternária entre o eu, os outros e os objetos transicionais. Defendemos a tese de que o modelo psicológico de Winnicott é o mais adequado para descrever a conceitualização epistemológica de Davidson das origens externalistas do autoconhecimento. / The aim of the thesis is to investigate the formation of interiority from an externalist approach. The processes by which the self is constituted are considered to be associated with the development of the first-person perspective. Adopt a first-person perspective is to become able to refer to yourself and know your own mental and bodily states. Self-awareness and self-knowledge were traditionally subsumed under the idea of Descartes first person authority. According to the Cartesian view, we would have preferred and non-empirical to our mental states that would be expressed by a knowledge access. The central thesis of externalism asserts, instead, that the content of mental states consists in part by relationships with the environment. The adoption of the externalist thesis calls into question the Cartesian assumption that we have privileged access to the contents of our thoughts, thus restricting the authority of the first person. The perceptual externalism Davidson, for example, offers a ternary I-interpreter-world solution to the origins of self. Davidson's thesis is presented as reconciling the self and the central ideas of externalism. Are presented two models of external genesis of I: 1) ecological models that propose a development of a sense of self as a due to interactions between the self and the environment; 2) the psychological model Winnicott proposes that the emergence of the sense of self from a ternary relationship between the self, others and the transitional objects. We defend the thesis that the psychological model of Winnicott is most suitable for describing the epistemological conceptualization of the origins Davidson externalist self-knowledge.

El artículo expone el argumento antiescéptico de Davidson; pero, en el análisis del argumento y de las respuestas a sus críticos, va quedando claro que los argumentos e instrumentos utilizados en este y otros puntos de la obra de Davidson implican la remoción de algunos de los supuestos básicos del paradigma filosófico dominante de matriz cartesiana. Así, el abandono del mito de lo subjetivo y su sustitución por la idea del carácter esencialmente intersubjetivo del pensamiento y de sus contenidos; la asunción del carácter esencialmente social del lenguaje y, con él, de la normatividad y, ya en un plano metafilosófico,el abandono del fundacionismo y la simultánea refutación, por inconsistencia, de su contracara, el escepticismo filosófico.---Davidson’s Antiskeptic Argument as a Convergence of Radical Innovations”. This article exposes Davidson’s antiskeptical strategy. After that analysis it aims to turn clear that the arguments and tools used in this and other aspects of Davidson’s works imply the removal of some of the basic assumptions of the dominant philosophical paradigm of Cartesian basis. Thus: the abandonment of the myth of the subjective and its substitution by the idea of the essentially intersubjective character of thought and its contents; the assumption of the essentially social character of language and, with it, of the normativity, and, in a metaphilosophical level, the abandonment of the foundacionism and the simultaneous rebuttal, by inconsistency, of philosophical skepticism.