b. 1946
Tyler Burge (born 1946) is an American analytic philosopher at UCLA, best known for his anti-individualist (externalist) account of mental content. His landmark arthritis thought experiment demonstrated that the contents of propositional attitudes are partially constituted by social and physical environment, not solely by intrinsic mental states. He has made major contributions to epistemology, philosophy of perception, and the theory of self-knowledge.
Developed content externalism (anti-individualism) via the arthritis thought experiment in 'Individualism and the Mental' (1979)
Articulated the theory of epistemic entitlement as a non-inferential, non-evidential source of justification
Produced a systematic account of perceptual representation in 'Origins of Objectivity' (2010)
Advanced the debate on self-knowledge by arguing that authoritative first-person access is compatible with externalism
Contributed foundational work on the individuation of mental states and their social determination