Coursework.Info - Inspiration in an Instant

On the left is an image preview of every page of this document, and below are the first 150 words with formatting removed:

Question: What, if anything, do Putnam's Twin-Earth thought experiments demonstrate about meaning? Hilary Putnam supports linguistic externalism, which asserts that the meanings of the words we use derive from events which take place outside of our own minds. He disagrees with linguistic internalism, which states that the meaning of an utterance depends on the psychological states of the person who utters it. In other words, he believes that what our words mean, depends upon events external to our minds, rather than internal. There are two main principles of linguistic internalism. First, that the words used in sentences and utterances have meanings which are known by the person or persons who use them. These meanings are called intensions. The second principle is that these intensions are descriptive of what the word refers to. For example, the intensions attached to the word 'cat', such as, a creature covered in fur, with four legs and...

To see the full version of this document, and 145,841 others