Putnam's twin-earth cases demonstrate that competent speakers can use terms identically in all behavioral respects yet diverge in extension, severing synonymy from any accessible epistemic grounding.

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Epistemic grounding(epistemology): The logical foundation or justification that explains why you're allowed to believe something; basically, the reasons or evidence that make a belief valid.
Putnam: # Putnam "Putnam" most commonly refers to **Hilary Putnam** (1926-2016), an influential American philosopher who made major contributions to philosophy of mind, language, and science. He is famous for thought experiments like the "brain in a vat" scenario, which explores questions about reality and how we know what's real. His work fundamentally changed how philosophers think about the relationship between our minds, language, and the external world.
Twin-earth cases(the specific argument being referenced): A famous thought experiment imagining an exact duplicate of Earth where everything is identical except one thing (like water being made of a different substance), used to show that the meaning of words depends on the world around us, not just what's in our minds.
competent speakers(as used in linguistics and philosophy of language)

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