Internalist vs Externalist - What's the difference?
internalist | externalist | coordinate terms |
(philosophy) Holding that a particular mental phenomenon, such as motivation or justification, has an internal rather than external basis
* {{quote-journal, 2008, date=December 6, Sanford C. Goldberg, Reliabilism in philosophy, Philosophical Studies, url=, doi=10.1007/s11098-008-9300-7, volume=142, issue=1, pages=
, passage=For one thing, many people regard rationality as an epistemically internalist notion, whereas reliability is a paradigmatic example of an epistemically externalist notion. }}
(philosophy) A supporter of internalism
* {{quote-journal, 2007, date=July 12, Harold Langsam, Rationality, Justification, and the Internalism/Externalism Debate, Erkenntnis, url=, doi=10.1007/s10670-007-9059-9, volume=68, issue=1, pages=
, passage=Perhaps I will appear presumptuous and misguided in claiming to explain the debate between internalists and externalists, for some would insist that there are a variety of related debates that get discussed under the heading of internalism and externalism. }}
(epistemology) Contending that there are non-internal factors which can affect the justificatory status of a belief
* {{quote-journal, 2008, date=August 30, Josefa Toribio, State Versus Content: The Unfair Trial of Perceptual Nonconceptualism, Erkenntnis, url=, doi=10.1007/s10670-008-9120-3, volume=69, issue=3, pages=
, passage=One possible way out would be to appeal to some suitable form of externalist epistemology— based e.g. on facts about reliable empirical connections between the creatures’ responsive dispositions and the content of their experiences—to try to explain just how the content of perceptual experiences informs these subjects’ intentional behaviour. }}